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

PHD THESES AT THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL GALLERY - Gábor BELLÁK: Types of Representation in the Portraiture of Gyula Benczúr

PHD THESES AT THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL GALLERY GABOR BELLAK Types of Representation in the Portraiture of Gyula Benczúr The aim of the dissertation was a comprehensive investigation of Gyula Benczúr's portraiture, and, as such, it was the first in Benczúr studies to arrange a catalogue of a clearly distinct and significant part of his oeuvre. Portraits had a markedly important role in Benczúr's lifework: his first commission was to paint a portrait, and, after returning home in 1883, he became the number-one portraitist of the Hungarian and the related foreign aristocracy. He painted several likenesses of the king, the heir apparent, the royal family, the Hungarian cabinet, the representatives of Hungarian intellectual and business life. He also portrayed members of his family, and his series of self-portraits are also outstanding. On the other hand, the portrait as a genre acquired increasing significance in the art of the period after the Compromise of 1867. Both the historical and the newly established aristocracy, the upper middle class, made definite demands for its representation in painting just as much as in architecture. In contrast to more traditional chronological or style historical approaches, independent generic study divides the oeuvre along different axes, it groups it differently, lays emphases elsewhere, sheds light on different relations, and - regarding the scholarly attraction to major thematic exhibitions that seek to present a particular genre, such as the nude (Budapest, 2004), the portrait (London, 2000, Stockholm, 2001), the self-portrait (Liverpool, 1994; Vienna 2004-2005) - it seems to be closer to our own Zeitgeist. The thesis devoted a separate chapter to the observations Benczúr literature had made and also the various groups of sources on the artist, especially the written and fine-arts material in the possession of the great grandchildren. This was eked out by the survey and evaluation of the materials in various Hungarian and foreign museums and archives. It turned out from the survey of the literature that the decades between the 1960s and 80s meant a turning point during which the demonized and unqualifiedly negative image of Benczúr which Lajos Fülep and Aurél Bernáth had drawn came to be regarded definitive. It became apparent that the scholarly consensus on Benczúr was no more than the accumulation of historically changing opinions often based on subjective feelings and value judgments, and that, in contrast to this consensus, an increasing number of scholars have tried to point out new possibilities and directions in the interpretation of Benczúr. Simultaneously, it was also the analysis of the literature on the artist that led to the question of how far he was known in the various periods. It was only 1929 that a portrait of his was acquired by a museum, and the next time one went into a public collection was in 1938. It is no wonder that István Genthon deemed this very picture (The Portrait of Etelka in Black, 1868) the finest likeness in the oeuvre, and that his observation remained a stereotype for several decades. In similar fashion, some pictures came to be overvalued, some not even mentioned in the literature. Portraiture constituted almost half the oeuvre of Benczúr. But if we take into account only the completed and finished works, excluding sketches and studies, this proportion increases to twothirds. Though Benczúr did practise several genres, it must be emphasized: he was first and foremost a portraitist. And especially so after his return home to Budapest in 1883, when he produced most of his portraits. From the some 260 likenesses by him, we can get to know not only the notabilities of the late 19

th and early 20

th century, but also a portraitist technique equally characteristic of Hungary and anywhere else in Europe. Weighty lessons can be drawn from the analysis of the use of photos in portraimre, not only with regard to stylistic, but also - should it be wished - psychological issues. For this very reason, the thesis treats the choreography of portraying as well as the techniques of using photographs in portraiture. Another particularly interesting lesson that could also be drawn from cataloguing Benczúr's portraits and identifying his models