Majorossy Judit (szerk.): A Ferenczy Múzeum Évkönyve 2014 - Studia Comitatensia 33., Új Folyam 1. (Szentendre, 2014)
Szentendre. Adalékok a Pajor család, a Pajor-kúria és a Ferenczy-család történetéhez - Martos Gábor: Két talált kép „megtisztítása”. Ferenczy Valér ismeretlen nagybányai művei egy magyarországi magángyűjteményből
Studia Comitatensia 2014 - Yearbook of the Ferenczy Museum - New Series 1 - English Summaries Gábor Martos The “Purification” of Two Newly Discovered Paintings. The Unknown Nagybánya Works of Valér Ferenczy from a Hungarian Private Collection The painter and graphic artist Valér Ferenczy (1885-1954) was the eldest among the three children of the famous painter Károly Ferenczy (1862—1917); one of the younger twins, Béni was primarily famous as a sculptor, and - after his right side had been paralyzed - as a graphic artist, while Noémi became successful as a textile artist. Nowadays the art of the whole family is displayed in its most complete form within the framework of the rearranged Ferenczy exhibition of the Ferenczy Museum in Szentendre, which was first opened in 1972 and after long adversities found its new permanent home in the renovated Pajor mansion in 2013. Nevertheless, beside the works of art exhibited in Szentendre and, in addition, beside those preserved in various public collections and museums at least known by the art historians, there are several lesser known or unknown pieces prepared by the family members in private collections. The present study discusses two of such paintings by Valér Ferenczy which were never exposed to public view so far. From 1896 onwards, Valér got acquainted with and learnt painting in Nagybánya (today Baia Mare, Romania), in one of the most famous Hungarian artists’ colony (his father being among its founders), and later also studied in Munich, Berlin and Paris then returning to the art colony. The first work of art (Fig. 3) presented in this article was also prepared in the colony and one can feel the strong influence of his father’s landscape painting. However, comparing the two oeuvre, it is also striking that while in Károly Ferenczy’s life-work both the landscapes of gloomy atmosphere and those bathing in the glaring sunshine, presented with wild colours and sharp shadows are to be found, the son’s natural landscapes are dominated by the blunt-painted, hardly “bloodless” colours — although he also had such “urban landscapes” eternalized in sharp light, with bright colours. Since for Valér “his deep empathy for his father’s painting made it difficult to find his own path, he turned his attention to graphic methods, mainly to etching.” He prepared with this technique learnt during his study tour in Paris in early 1914 many landscapes and townscapes, among them several ones about Nagybánya and its surrounding area. (In addition to his practical activity, he also used his acquired theoretical knowledge of graphical methods to promote the etching in Hungary: he had lectures about it and wrote articles on the technique.) The second presented unknown work of art (Fig. 11) is one of the etched urban landscapes of Nagybánya on which he immortalized its former Vár (Castle) street (today Strada Crisan) starting at the southern end of the Main Square. The location can be easily identified with the help of the Google Street View programme (Fig. 15). The etching reflects how gladly Valér Ferenczy applied on his urban landscapes the strong contrasts of light and shadow. With the help of the catalogue prepared by Lajos Nándor Varga entitled The Repository of the Hungarian Graphics, the Engravers between 1900 and 1936 — or more precisely on the basis of the dimensions he listed there - this work can be identified with the zinc plate engraving, The Sunny Street about which Valér himself noted: it was “my largest etching, Nagybánya, 1919”. 264
