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
The complete pieces of the Andrássy Dining Room were displayed at a Christmas celebration organised by the Society for Applied Arts, at the Museum of Applied Arts, in December of 1898. Nevertheless, the golden medal was awarded to Miksa Róth for the stained glass window. The unjust decision initiated a hostile press campaign between Rippl-Rónai and Jenő Radisics, the chairman of the jury and the director of the Museum of Applied Arts. Rippl-Rónai, the intellectual proprietor, was profoundly mistreated. His success with applied arts came to a sudden end. In a desperate letter, sent from Banyuls in November of 1899 to Ernő Kämmerer, Member of Parliament, he states that "after the success of last year, I would have never imagined becoming so neglected. They could at least request a darned poster for the exhibition held in 1900. They did not." Count Andrássy's conduct also proved to be disappointing: he failed to settle Rippl-Rónai's full account. Following the customs of aristocracy, Andrássy's widow, Eleonóra Zichy (1867-1945) married her brother-in-law, Gyula Andrássy Jr. She left the Buda mansion, and had the dining room moved to Tiszadob, the manor of her second husband. The castle was aggrandised to accommodate the stained glass window and the glass ceiling. As the photographs taken around 1910 show, the arrangement of furniture departed from the original idea.The Welsh dresser stood left to the stained glass window, while the fireplace was located at its right side. The Andrássy Dining Room perished in 1918, during the end of World War I. Rippl-Rónai had to suspend his applied arts activities; he returned to painting in 1899, while staying at Maillol's in the Pyrenees. His four-year stay at Kaposvár, beginning in 1902, resulted in the naturalization of Parisian art with the help of the paintings of his "interior era". His 1906 exhibition in Budapest was a breakthrough success: Rippl-Rónai became an acknowledged, well-to-do painter, inspiring generations of artists. He initiated the founding of the "Műhely" ("Workshop", Budapest, 1908), an enterprise of young applied artists and architects. The group exhibited apartment interiors in the Urania art shop. Unfortunately, this initiation for the renewal of Hungarian interior design did not meet enough requests; it quickly came to an end. Rippl-Rónai, however, was in the middle of a creative period, ready to marry his mosaic-like "corn style" with applied arts. The success of the glass window designed for the staircase of the Ernst Museum (1912) proved him right. In 1913, Elemér Czakó, the headmaster of the National School of Applied Arts asked him to provide his drafts for the school, for the benefit of the standard of education. These drafts have been exhibited in the Museum of Applied Arts. He, The opportunity to become the headmaster of the school was offered to him but then quickly withdrawn. "I could have aspired to become the headmaster of the school, given that my activity would have been found beneficial by the authorities in charge." Unfortunately, the doors of bureaucracy remained closed for Rippl-Rónai.
