Veszprémi Nóra - Jávor Anna - Advisory - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2005-2007. 25/10 (MNG Budapest 2008)

STUDIES - Ágnes FELFÖLDI: Béla Fónagy and the Belvedere Salon (1921-24)

5. János Kmetty: Self-Portrait in Blue, 1913. HNG was his house hit. The house was then raided, and Fónagy, in offering Zombory the opportunity of sales through the exhibition and thus of a new beginning, demonstrated his philanthropism and art patronising attitude. Lajos Zombory won the Gyula Wolfner prize with his Carrying Ice in 1921. His Ploughing is held by the János Damjanich Museum in Szolnok.

42 The next display at the Belvedere Salon proved to be one of its outstanding shows: the joint exhibition of the works of János Kmetty (1889-1975) and Géza Csorba, a number of which are now owned by public collections. Kmetty's Ascension and Self Portrait in Blue both from 1913 were among the exhibits. (111. 5) The former exists in two, not quite identical versions, one of which is a cherished possession of the HNG, the other is in a private collection.

43 The paintings recalled the artistic-revolutionary mood of the teens of the century, the prophetic, messianic role Kmetty ascribed himself: the artist showing society the way of the future. Kmetty kept to himself these pictures, as he himself bestowed them on the HNG in 1970. In Géza Csorba's (1892— 1974) oeuvre, the poet Endre Ady was the most important idol, but his sculpture of Sári Petráss (1922), though now forgotten, won acclaim at the time. The statue immortalizing the modern female ideal was made of the celebrated operetta prima donna, who spoke several languages and married profitably several times. The HNG holds Homer (c. 1921) and My Mother (1921) and a few drawings from among the works he displayed at the Belvedere.

44 The following exhibition, that of Károly Patkó (1895-1945) and Henrik Schönbauer, was no let-down for the public either. Patkó's Arcadian pictures were particularly successful. Perhaps the most remarkable among them is Adam and Eve (1920), depicting the pair at the moment of the Fall. The metal-harsh colouring of the neo-classicist painting intentionally directs the attention of the viewer towards rational interpretations. By the time of the exhibition, the painting had already been in the possession of Jenő Schwarz; from 1999, the carefully guarded treasure has been exhibited several times. From among Patkó's Belvedere exhibits, the HNG displayed Spring (Composition, 1920), Recumbent Nude (Study for the Siesta, 1921 ) and Still Life with a Jug (Still Life with Blue Drapery, 1920) at its In the Land of Arcadia show in 2001.

45 Noting his success at the Belvedere, the Ernst Museum, which had rejected him earlier, put up a one-man show for him in 1924. Henrik Schönbauer (1894-1973) could demonstrate his elementally powerful genius to the Hungarian public with his sculptures first at the Belvedere. Later, though he did have another exhibition at the Belvedere, he emigrated to the United States, where he would become a celebrated artist known as Henry Schonbauer. In Hungary, the Kőszeg Municipal Museum holds some forty works of his.

46 And these include the following Belvedere exhibits: 1920: Hercules; 1920-1922: Eve; The Wood Breaker; 1921: Stone Thrower; 1922: Fighter; Man Struggling with a Serpent; Slave; c. 1920: Pain. His best known work, The Stone Roller, had been sculpted in 1919, and acquired by the HNG in 1985.

47 (111. 6) The sculptures were reproduced at the time in the magazines Magyar írás and Ars Una. It took quite some daring to arrange a one-man show for Géza Bornemisza (1884-1964) in March, 1922. He had worked at the Kecskemét painters' colony, then served in the army in the First World War. During the Commune, together with art historian Kálmán Pogány, he took part in directing cultural policy. As a result, he was pushed into the background after 1919. It was his latest works he presented at the Belvedere Salon, of which the Muharát wrote the following: "The Belvedere arranged Géza Bornemisza's first one-man exhibition. We are happy to see a larger selection of the works by this rather reclusive and withdrawn artist. Apart from some of his oils, his watercolours and drawings are particularly impressive start-ups an infinitely sensitive nervous system has when encountering the play of lines and 6. Henrik Schönbauer: The Stone Roller, 1919. HNG