Magyar Hírek, 1985 (38. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)
1985-01-19 / 1-2. szám
The “estate” of János Tornyai Television was first to report on this sensation of Hungarian art on the 21st November 1984: “...ten days ago more than 700 works by János Tornyai were found under the floor board of a room. The outstanding Hungarian painter, who spent the better part of his life at Hódmezővásárhely, had his last studio in Budapest. During rebuilding paintings, drawings, and a host of important biographical documents came to life...” No painter intends such a fate for his works. Knowing his life and intentions, it is impossible to imagine that Tornyai did. Stubbornly striving for perfection, Tornyai was looking for the national idiom on canvas. He was a contemporary, a fellow fighter of the generations of artists, who entered the field—with Ady, Zsigmond Móricz, Kodály and Bartók in the vanguard—for the material and spiritual liberation of the people. * János Tornyai was born at Hódmezővásárhely on the 18th of January 1869. His talent was already discovered in elementary school. He was often commissioned to draw maps, and later portraits after photographs. When he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Bertalan Székely, Károly Lotz, János Greguss were his teachers. Later some of the leading patrons of art of his native town made it possible for him to go to Paris, where he studied the material of the museums and enrolled with the Academie Julien, but his greatest experience was meeting the famous Hungarian painter, Mihály Munkácsy, who lived there. Munkácsy's influence later shone through in many places of his work. When he returned home, he produced such important works as Népoktatás a tanyán (Teaching in the homestead), Szitáló lány (Sifting girl), Téli este (Winter evening), Vacsora előtt (Before supper), and the most important work of his life, Juss (Share of the inheritance). Even though he won a prize at the 1904 Műcsarnok exhibition with the first variation of the latter, he polished, perfected the subject for 30 years. He returned to it again and again, and painted and repainted the most tense conflict of peasant life, bickering over the family inheritance. He died on the 20th of November 1936. Four days after his death newspapers already carried the news: “800 pictures by János Tornyai have disappeared. The Hódmezővásárhely police began investigating the case." * For forty-eight years nobody knew anything about the vanished pictures, which represented a considerable proportion of Tornyai’s oeuvre. László Puskás, a painter, has been living in one of the third floor twin studios, the other one of which was Tornyai’s last, complete with a portico and a small bedroom. This is where János Tornyai’s widow, née Rozália The pointer with his wile Proits lived until her death in September 1983. When she died, Puskás applied for and obtained possession or it. Due to their poor condition, the premises had to be restored, and the portico taken down, in order to open the two studios into one. Tornyai’s works were found in the course of rebuilding. * “Where, were the pictures and other object found?" I asked Mr. Puskás. “Two cases were found at first. We found 60-70 pictures in them. But the major part of the cache was in the Mrs. Tornyai’s room, beneath the floorboards. Apparently the sand was removed from the brick ceiling some time ago, leaving a 30 cm cavity between it and the floorboards. This is where the pictures were carefully concealed wrapped in newspapers dated 1938. Mrs. Tornyai’s bed stood right above the hiding-place. That was where the widow slept for almost half a century. It is a mystery why she hid the pictures When, on the day after the discovery, we started to unpack the pictures with the experts of the National Gallery”—Puskás continued— “we thought there could be one or two hundred under the floor. A few large canvases were found, but plenty of medium and small ones. The majority were rolled up on wood. When they were unpacked, we began counting. They never seemed to end. It is almost unbelievable, but we counted over 700. There were precisely 713 paintings and drawings in the find. And also many valuable objects, countless photographs, written documents, and Tornyai’s diary, more than ten note-books.” “What was the state of the pictures?" “Surprisingly good. They survived this almost half a century under the floor practically undamaged.” ILONA CSERESNYÉS-BAYER Chronicle Increasing financial aid for mothers and children A number of new measures will improve the financial assistance given in Hungary to mothers and children. A committee of experts delegated by several departments and the National Planning Office will prepare them. A spokesman of the committee announced that the range of the new measures to be gradually introduced from 1985 onwards has already been outlined. One of them is that the pregnancy and childbirth grant will be extended by four weeks. The additional grant will be given four weeks before the scheduled time of birth, enabling working mothers-to-be to at stay home and make appropriate preparations for the arrival of the baby. Until now many pregnant women worked almost to the time of delivery, often endangering their pregnancy. The amount of the birth allowance will also be increased at the same time. A further important measure is that mothers caring for their baby at home will be given a substantially higher child care allowance, than the current one. At the moment the parent taking care of the child may go on leave without pay, and gets about 1,000 forint allowance a month, considerably less than her or his monthly wages. According to plan, the child care alloVance will be as much as the ordinary sickpay the parent would get during illness (about 75 per cent of the monthly income). The amount of child care allowance will increase with the number of children, but gradually decrease as the little ones grow older. Parents will be eligible for the allowance until the child is ten years old, instead of the current six-years age limit. Family allowances will also increase for families with three or more children. The latter measure will come into force in 1985. Interest-free loans to young people for home building or purchase The Municipial Council of Budapest launched a loan programme in order to facilitate home building or purchase on the part of young people. Couples under 35 who have already applied for rented or cooperative homes, but would now endeavour to purchase, or to build a home unit will be granted interest—free loans ranging from fifty to two hundred thousand forint. The amount of the loan increases by fifty thousand forint per child. The new measure was made necessary by the circumstance that the number of government-assisted—therefore cheaper— rented and cooperative homes decreased considerably, and many young people did not have sufficient funds to meet the deposit required for homes built by the National Savings Bank because of the rise in house prices. It is hoped that the new loan programme will solve the home problem of many young Budapest couples. RECIPES Meat soufflé. A way of making use of leftovers. Ingredients: 301 grammes of boiled or roasted veal beef, or pork, 60 grammes of lard oi oil, 40 grammes of flour, 300 grammes of milk, 3 eggs, salt, pepper, red paprika; tomato or mushroom sauce Mince the meat with half of the lard or the equivalent oil. Make a thick white pudding with the rest oi the shortening, the flour and the milk. When this is half-cooked, mix into it the yolks of the eggs, the minced meat, season it to taste, then work in the beaten whites of eggs. Pour the mass into a greased form, and stem over slowly boiling water for 40 minutes. Tip the soufflé on a dish, pour the sauce around it, or serve the sauce separately. Rolled roast with sauerkraut. Ingredients: 1000 grammes fillet of pork, 200 grammes ham on the bone, 20 grammes smoked sowbelly, 150 grammes sauerkraut, 150 grammes minced pork, 100 grammes lard, salt, red paprika, a pinch of ground pepper, 1-2 cloves of garlic. Cut the fillet of por neatly so that you obtain large, thin fillet. Work the finely chopped garlic, red pepper. salt and pepper, and a third of the lard into the minced pork to form a long, thin sausage shape, and roast. Place the thinly sliced bacon evenly on the fillet, then top this with sliced ham, and finally with the roasted sausage meat. Roll the fillet so that it covers the lot. In the meantime, squeeze out the juice of the sauerkraut, braise it in the second third of the lard, place this on the fillet over it. Secure the prepared roll with spikes at sufficient points, and place it into a pre-heated oven with the rest of the lard, and a little water. Braise until tender, then roast to a good colour. Walnut sticks. Ingredients: 150 grammes of rough-ground walnut. 150 grammes of icing sugar, 1 eggs, some lemon peel. Mix the ingredients, and roll the mixture to suitable thickness on a board sprinkled with bread-crumbs. Beat the white of an egg with 70 grammes of icing sugar and a few drops of lemon juice until it is of a firm consistency, spread the mixture evenly on top of the nutty mass, then slice to finger with, producing about 10 cm long sticks. Place the sticks into a greased baking dish. The sticks should then be dried, rather, than baked. M. K. 63
