Gosztonyi Ferenc - Király Erzsébet - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2002-2004. 24/9 (MNG Budapest, 2005)
NEW ATTRIBUTIONS - Margit Pogány: Still Life, first half of the 1910s (Péter Nemes)
With this information, the painting in question was easily identified among the items in the catalogue. Little is known of the life of Margit Pogány. She was born on 31 October 1879 into a Jewish family from Budapest. 7 Her father was Sándor Pollatsek. 8 She made several visits to the Nagybánya Artists' Colony between 1902 and 1908. In about 1909 or 1910, she went to Paris, and became a pupil of Lucien Simon, later setting up her own studio there. In 1910, she met Constantin Brâncu§i in the French capital. She undertook longer study tours of Tyrol, Italy and the Netherlands. She was a regular exhibitor at the Műcsarnok (Exhibition Palace) and the Nemzeti Szalon (National Salon) from 1905 in Budapest. Her first major Hungarian success came with the exhibition in the rooms of the Coloman Beauclerc Salon in 1913." She presented her work at a group exhibition at the Nemzeti Szalon in 1928 and in her own studio in April, 1942. In 1948, she emigrated to Australia, and died there on 31 December, 1964. Her friendship with Brâncusj, a French artist of Romanian descent, is of interest not so much from the point of view of art history but of cultural history. Margit Pogány was his model for a bust series entitled Mademoiselle Pogany, which was crucially important in his whole oeuvre, and which is known in several marble and bronze-cast versions. In all likelihood, the unsold artworks were moved for safekeeping from the Museum of Fine Arts to the Műcsarnok, and then to the Fővárosi Képtár (Municipal Gallery) in 1948, where they were given registration numbers. This group of artworks finally ended up in the Hungarian National Gallery. Uncovering the history of these works has facilitated the identification of some and helped to confirm the attribution of others. NOTES 1 Művészet, 1915, no. 6, p. 289. 2 Képes Tárgymutató a Józseffőherceg Auguszta főhercegasszony ő fenségeik védnöksége alatt álló sárosi művészi sorsjáték kiállításáról (Illustrated Index of the Sáros Art Lottery Exhibition under the patronage of their Royal Highnesses, Archduke Joseph and Archduchess Augusta), ed.: János Lesskó, Committee Secretary, Budapest, 1915, p. 3. Elemér Horváth was the managing director of Hungarian General Credit Bank and the president of the Stock Market. 3 See Képes Tárgymutató, p. 5. 4 Sec Művészet, 1915, no. 7, pp. 289-292. listing all contributing artists. 5 Művészet, 1915, no. 6, p. 290. 6 The labels on the back with the inscription 'Sáros Committee, 1915' probably numbered the artworks according to the order of arrival. The numbers on the front of the pictures are identical with the numbers in the catalogue, as attested to by the fact that several signed paintings in the Hungarian National Gallery still bear these stickers, always matching with the catalogue itemization. 7 Margit Pogány 's biographical details can be reconstructed from her own answers to a 1939-41 survey by the Hungarian Ministry of Education. The archives of the Institute of Art History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, inv. no.: MKCs-C-I-57/321-I. 8 The illustrated catalogue of the Nagybánya jubilee exhibition, edited by Samu Börtsök and István Réti, Nagybánya, 1912. She is listed among painter students still as Margit Pollacsek Pogány. According to the catalogue she worked at the colony as member of the school in 1905 and as a non-member in 1908. She displayed two pictures at a 1912 exhibition: Yellow Tree, oil, no.: 133; and Nagybánya Bridge, oil, no.: 347, reproduced. 9 Kálmán Timon: Pogány Margit és Brancusi (M. Pogány and Brancusx), Magyar Építőművészet, 1971, pp. 58-60.
