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)

8. Károly Cser: Dancers, 1920s. HNG Alfréd Réth (1886-1966) had participated at several Paris exhibitions in the teens of the century. Like Imre Szobotka, he was also interned in France during World War I. In 1916, he mostly produced drawings and collages (some of which would be displayed at the Belvedere). After the war, he went to Paris for a while, then returned home to Hungary. His quest for form at this time could be described as belonging in the "metaphysical cubistic" tendency. He displayed his works at the First and Second Group Exhibition of the Belvedere Salon, but he returned to Paris and settled there for good at the end of 1924, where he would already take part in the 1925 Salon des Indépendants. The reconstruction of the collection of 77 works he had put on show in Budapest is in its initial stage, and the paintings he painted in this period that probably belong in this group include: 1922: Seated Nude; 1920: The Bank of the Seine; 1922: Kőbánya Railway Station; Outlying Pub.1 Until his Belvedere exhibition, opened on November 19, 1922, Gyula Derkovits ( 1894-1934) had been known to the public at large by hardly a handful of works. Earlier on he had worked at the Nyergesújfalu artists' colony of Károly Kernstok, and then at Imre Szobotka's studio; now, he presented oils, watercolours and drawings in ink, including the most important pictures of his "Arcadian" period: The Last Supper ( 1922), The Shepherd ( 1922) and Under a Great Tree (Autumn; 1922).

58 Bequeathed from the estate of artcritic Ernő Mihályfi, several of his works on paper are in the Nógrád Historical Museum. After his show at the Belvedere, from 1923, Derkovits tried his fortune in Vienna, but returned home after a few years, and linked up with Hungarian art life. His paintings, drawings and prints acquiring an increasingly social critical tone, he became one of the most important artists of the period, often displaying his work at the KUT exhibitions.

59 (Colour Plate X, 111. 9) After the end of World War I, József Egry (1888-1955) settled down in Balaton-side Keszthely, and a new painterly period thus began to unfold in his life. Giving up his weighty, expressive mode of painting, he began to experiment with a more lucid "painting with light". He presented the fruit of this stage in his development at the Belvedere in December 1922. The outstanding exhibits included such works as: Sunset (Woman Planting or Planters, 1920), Storm over the Balaton (1921), Cain and Abel (1919) or his pastel sketch Study for Hill Road (1922) - most of these works of his are held at the Dezső Laczkó Museum in Veszprém. In 1923, the Museum of Fine Arts acquired two Egry drawings (Reeders and Peasant Woman) from Belvedere Art Co., which are now regularly exhibited by the HNG.

60 Vilmos Perlrott Csaba (1880-1955) left Hungary in the autumn of 1919. Together with his first wife, Margit Gráber, they went to Vienna. Later on, they lived in various towns in Slovakia and Germany (Berlin, Wertheim am Main, Dresden) for shorter or longer stretches. Perlrott kept up with the developments of modern painting, mostly drawing on German expressionism for his own work.

61 The works he displayed at the Belvedere Salon in the beginning of 1923 relate to the passion of Christ (e.g. Lamentation of Christ, 1921, private collection). Apart from these, the public could also see still lifes, city scapes and parts of the lithograph series he had made in Berlin in 1921 (Lamentation; Angels; Christ; Resurrection; The Holy Family). The exhibition being financially rewarding, soon Perlrott returned to Hungary, first regularly staying in Szentendre, then permanently settling there. Joining forces with Henrik Schönbauer, the exhibition Dávid Jándi ( 1893-1944) put up was followed with attention not only by art critics,

62 but artist colleagues too. In a letter to Béla Fónagy, József Egry enquired about the success of Jándi 's show: "How was it with our friend Jándi 's exhibition? I believe he would deserve some financial whatever. Do you think this is a valuable talent coming over the horizon?"

63 Mostly Biblical in theme, his works are full of movement, overcrowded for some. From his Belvedere exhibits, we know Recumbent Female Nude (Recumbent Venus); Christ at Emmaus (Conferrers or Supper at Emmaus). Twilight, and, presumably, Madonna (A Woman s Portrait). Jándi 's material from these years is incomplete in spite of the reproductions in the press of the day: the whereabouts of major works of his are yet unknown. The HNG owns a watercolour from among his Belvedere exhibits.

64 Also a fledgling artist, Ferenc Révész-Ferryman (1893-1967) attracted notice by his "processed stencils" (special monotypes he himself developed). The artist had had his first one-man show in London, then in Hungary at the National Salon in 1919. From 1920, he lived in Germany, exhibiting his work in Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Cologne, Dresden. In Hungary, he was involved in making tapestries, sometimes working together with Lajos Kozma. After his Belvedere exhibition, he travelled to the United States as a salesman of the Greco Tapestries Co., and remained there till the end of his life. The HNG owns a chalk drawing of a Venice detail (Canal Grande) he bestowed on the Museum of Fine of Arts in 1923.

65 The joint exhibition of the sculptor Fémes Beck Vilmos (18851918) and the painter Géza Pap was open to the public in March