Horváth János: Rippl-Rónai József iparművészeti munkássága, az Andrássy-ebédlő (Kaposvár, 2013)
János Horváth: József Rippl-Rónai and the Applied Arts - the Andrássy Dining Room
While the Pre-Raphaelites were exploring mythical realms, the French artists were offering a perspective of the familiar, bustling city. Les Nabis consisted of tapestry artists and painters such as Émile Bernard, Paul Ran- son, Maurice Denis, and Aristide Maillol. Such were the predecessors of the greatest period of applied arts, the era now commonly called Art Nouveau. At that time Rippl-Rónai made a change in his career by leaving his master Mihály Munkácsy, in order to release himself from the role of the well-to-do copyist. His individual experiments with style were congenial to the ambitions of Les Nabis. He became familiarised with the Pre-Raphaelites and introduced to Aristide Maillol with the help of a friend, Scottish painter James Pitcairn Knowles. The friendship of Rippl-Rónai, Knowles, and Maillol represented a clique within Les Nabis. Maillol encouraged Rippl-Rónai to start designing tapestry; the pictures drawn on canvas were embroidered by Rippl-Rónai's French Lover, Lazarine Baudrion. Rippl-Rónai was a pioneer of Hungarian applied arts. His versatile posters, invitation cards, illustrations, tapestries, furnishings, ornate glass, stained glass windows, china and ceramics meant much more than occasional experimentations. His experiments with style resulted in the gaining of a comprehensive, extensive artistic and personal perspective. With a noble simplicity, he called these most innovative works "my decorative things". During his stay at Neuilly, and later in Hungary, he was striving to exploit his talent for decoration in the field of applied arts. Rippl-Rónai, Knowles, and their partners were renting an apartment in Neuilly, near Paris, and furnished it elegantly, as a sanctuary of art. Rippl-Rónai wrote long letters to his beloved mother about his bohemian lifestyle and housing situation, in hope of reconciling with her, as he felt he was being resented for choosing an unstable Parisian existence over a humble but secure pharmacist career in Kaposvár. His parents, however, were never reproachful. The following quotation introduces a new man, a committed artist led by artistic ideals. Let us now focus on the creative arrangement of his surroundings. "I can see how the drawbacks of my failings affect me and others as well, but I also feel that the peace of my conscience can be found only in beauty. As there is a lot to be amended in my character, I am making a slow progress, but I think I have found my way. I am becoming happy, and have started to think clearly, aiming for the simplest solutions, both in my artistic and private life. I play the piano several times a day, given that I have enough spare time (we have a piano, the only thing it needs is some Hungarian songs and nice waltzes). For the time being, it is located in the room where I am now writing this letter; this is also the room where we eat. This room is so beautiful, it looks like a tidy village chapel. It has light blue walls and almost white doors. It is furnished with one of my big pastel paintings with light pink frames, the portrait of an American girl; four nice woodcuts after my Scottish friend; a square-shaped oaken table with a white vase containing lilac-coloured asters (a huge bunch); a Turkish rug (under the table); two armchairs: a Louis XVI style masterpiece and one from the era of Louis XVIII; the third chair is rather short-legged, Henry II style. There is a big mirror on the fireplace, along with several white vases, and white sconces with colourful shades. I have a lovely sideboard, also from the Ancien Régime period. Now we are finished with this room, next time I will introduce the others: we have four other rooms and a nice kitchen."
