Vörös Éva: Erdélyi Mór fotográfiái - A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum tárgykatalógusai 3. (Budapest, 2012)
this building a studio was constructed from the loft on the west side, the first tenant of which was Mór Erdélyi.10 11 The studio was built on the west side of the court in an L shape. According to plans, the 7.55 by 9.98 metre studio room was situated on the Semmelweiss utca side, facing the street with three large and a smaller window. This room had access from an anteroom and a waiting room. The latter one opened on three further rooms, probably sitting rooms. The darkroom, next to the studio room, was 2.43 ms long. The full front of the wing facing Hatvány utca housed the bindery (5.1 by 3.42 ms), the copy room with glass ceiling (10.5 ms long) and the paint and retouch rooms." At the turn of the century this studio was regarded as one of the most up-to-date in the city. He had already been a successful and sought-after portrait photographer, his studio was frequented by politicians, aristocrats and scientists. Among his first works we find commissions by the City Council, an attempt to make a photographic copy of an oil painting depicting Franz Joseph in the largest possible format and he also photographed the Royal Palace.12 ‘He made photos of the King, the archdukes and ministers without hesitation, of state secretaries, lord lieutenants and mayors with some reluctance, but below their level only his assistants made portraits’.13 In 1894 he was given by the Imperial and Royal Chief Steward’s Office the title of Court Photographer.14 This was followed by a practically continuous series of commissions by the court. Partly a result of this connection and partly due to his business acumen, he participated in all important social and political events, where he worked and photographed almost like one possessed. His documentaries, rural and urban shots made him the most outstanding news photographer of the turn of century.15 His interests went beyond studio photographs. His company was active in all other branches of photography and filmmaking, as suggested by his advertisement: ‘Photographs taken each day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Life-sized pictures, watercolour and oil paintings based on original photographs or any smallsized snapshot. Separate department for open-air shots, such as sceneries, group photographs as well as shots of industrial estates or objects for industrial purposes’.16 Photographs acquired by the Royal Museum of Hungarian Agriculture from Mór Erdélyi according to museum records The correspondence between the institution and the artist is an important historical source, which often contains technical terms from the history of photographic techniques. It needs to be noted however that photographs discussed below are from ‘the studio of Mór Erdélyi’, as not only he but also his assistants made photographs as his business expanded. The foundation of the Royal Museum of Hungarian Agriculture was regarded as a success of national importance, established by Ignác Darányi, Minister of Agriculture, after it was initiated by the Hungarian National Farming Alliance.17 The building complex of Vajdahunyad Castle, which had soon become a favourite of visitors, was completed in 1907 in its present-day form, and was officially opened by the monarch Franz Joseph. No photograph exists of this event, but we possess a so-called historical event photograph from 1896, depicting Franz Joseph and Ignác Darányi together as the guests of honour at the animal show of the Millenary Exhibition.18 As the museum complex took years to build, the collections featured in the exhibitions had to be relocated several times. Those exhibitions that had been parts of the original opening of the Castle in 1907 were originally shown in a building in present-day Rákóczi (former Kerepesi) út. These exhibitions are depicted in an albumen series,19 with the imprint Erdélyi Imperial &■ Royal Court Photographer in the lower left corner of each photo, with the address of the studio on the right side: 2 Újvilág и., corner of Kossuth Lajos и., Budapest. The subject of some of these exhibitions were: cereals, maize, stud farms, silkworms, models of farm buildings, dairy farms, animal husbandry, soil and fertilisers, farming implements, beekeeping, sugar and distilleries, sugar beet breed collections. The same series also contains the now lost fagade of the building in Kerepesi road, designed by Henrik Schmahl in 1898, and the rather humbly appointed office interiors. According to the data in the accession register for the year 1902 it can be determined that the museum 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. 12 Baróti, ‘Erdélyi Mór’. 13 Tibor Sándor and Károly Kincses, ‘Fotó/város/történet. Híres fényképészek a városról. Párhuzamos nézőpontok: ahogy a várostörténész és ahogy a fotótörténész látja.’ Budapesti Negyed 15 (Spring 1997): 1. See also: http://epa.oszk.hu/00000/00003/00013/kincses.htm 14 Baróti, ‘Erdélyi Mór’. 15 Gábor Szilágyi and Sándor Kardos, Leletek a magyar fotográfia történetéből (Képzőművészeti Kiadó, 1984), 463. 16 Demeter, ‘Erdélyi Mór’. 17 Előzetes tájékoztató a Gazdasági Múzeumban. Bevezetés. (Budapest: Gazdasági Múzeum, 1897) 18 Collection cat. no.: Museum of Hungarian Agriculture, Original Photograph Collection (EF) 1359. Cf. Vasárnapi Újság 1896, no. 20: 328. 19 EF 1582-1605.
