Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 27. (1998)

PICTURES OF THE LAST CORONATION IN HUNGARY - Katalin Földi Dózsa: HISTORY OF THE EXHIBITED PICTURES

by Györgyi, (cat. 57). The paintings are interesting not only because of their documental character and artistic value but also from the point of view of photographic history. The studio-portraits have been coloured, occasionally painted over ever since photography was discovered. However, no evidence whatsoever is encountered of overpaintings press photos in order to eliminate technical problems due to restrictions of contemporary photography and ensure the documentable authenticity of a painting. The collection has never been published as a whole, only some pieces were exhibited. , Jenő Lechner had the opportunity in 1939, on his 60 birthday, to display 82 of his works in a separate hall on the Autumn Gallery in Műcsarnok. In addition to the three paintings of the Budapest Historical Museum two other ones were presented about the coronation, probably belonging to the Master. The Budapest Historical Museum's three pictures were on show at the exhibition of Dénes Györgyi in 1986

33 together with a fourth one, which is in possession of the Hungarian National Architectural Museum. Finally two pictures by Lechner and one by Dénes Györgyi were on display at the exhibition entitled "Ladies of the House of Hapsburg" in Schlosshof (Austria) in 1995. On this occasion the team of the Museum rediscovered how interesting this collection was from points of view both history of civilisation and history of art, and decided to present it to the public at a special exhibition. 12 »