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 - Judit BOROS: Hungarian Painters in Paris (1880-96)

As it turned out by the end of the 20

th century, the task of the fine arts was more complicated. The problem of modernity (modem production, modem market, modern society, modern metropolises, their lifestyles and the individual facing them all) was to be answered. Both modernism and historicism can be regarded as answers to the question posed by modernity. Neither is purely a matter of content or form, and neither constitutes value of itself. Ad absurdum, I can conceive of a modern historicist work of art. Modernism in painting cannot therefore be limited to the naturalistic-realistic-impressionistic tradition. In itself, there is no novelty in this idea. It has been received opinion for a while that the anti-naturalistic painterly tradition (let it be marked by the names of Poussin, Ingres, Puvis de Chavannes) itself led to modernism. The oeuvres of Manet, Cézanne, Gauguin or Matisse differ from the oeuvres of the majority of their contemporaries in that they are modem by way of uniting the naturalistic and antinaturalistic traditions. Purely formal modernism is a mannerism, and works of art modem only formally belong in the category of "pseudo-art" just as "academic gallery painting" does. Though theoretically accepted, the dual tradition of modernism has not been incorporated in Hungarian art-historical discourse to the degree needed, and has not led or seldom led to indispensable re-interpretations. II The oeuvre of Munkácsy, who worked in Paris, cannot be discussed within the context of Hungarian painting. Like the lifework of Whistler, Leibi, John Singer-Sargeant or Liebermann, Munkácsy's work (not only his painting, but his whole painterly disposition) can only be interpreted within the circle of the international juste milieu; it is in comparison with its members, within the context of the artistic circumstances that he lived and worked in that the individual merits of his painting can be clarified. His Hungarian reception, the Hungarian interpretation of his works and their influence on 19

th- and 20

th-century Hungarian painting are altogether a different issue which this dissertation does not broach. The Munkácsy Atelier (studio school) began to operate in the late 1870s, and, in its early form, it had an international aspect. Not quite independently of the laboursome aspect of his monumental paintings, the atelier began to work more like a guild after the 1880s. His person and training would never have made Munkácsy fit for a successful artist teacher; his social standing and his wide-ranging relationships, however, provided his pupils an opportunity to shoot ahead. The modern nature of his lifestyle helped the youths working under him comprehend and accept certain aspects of modernity, or, as in the case of Rippl-Rónai, even embrace modernism. The teaching practice of the Académie Julian differed from the educational system of the École des Beaux-Arts in character rather than in quality. Several teachers worked at both institutions. And with a shade of difference in each of them, they all taught a style blending academism and naturalism at both schools. However, the view of art the Académie Julian promoted was much freer, and the students were far more varied. The school fostered the unfolding of diversity. Students leamt just as much from one another as from their teachers. Judging by the critiques written at the time, impressionism did not have the force in its time 20

th-century art history was later to attribute it. Impressionist pictures were mostly popular in the United States, and, though impressionist paintings were on show at a number of venues in the period studied (not to mention the exhibitions the Impressionist Group arranged for itself), the overall picture seems to have been more negative. If we imagine the whole artistic output of the period as a great circle, impressionism makes up for only a slight segment of it. The painting of Cézanne, Gauguin or Van Gogh was known to a very small circle at the time. For the majority of painters studying in Paris between 1880 and 1896, it was plein-air naturalism and the best of realistic gerne painting (the conversation pieces Courbet, Manet and the later impressionists had painted between 1860 and 1874) could very well have meant an alternative to the naturalistic painting of Jules Bastien-Lepage and the others. Being the exception, the best artists, József Rippl-Rónai and Károly Ferenczy, sooner or later discovered the role of the anti-naturalistic tradition in shaping the modernistic approach in painting. The art of László Mednyánszky and Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka is so unique that it transcends the limits of an investigation focussing on general phenomena. This is why the thesis only discusses their oeuvre in passing. The appendices attached include lists of the Hungarian painters working in Paris in the period discussed, their presence at Paris exhibitions and their "Paris" works put up at Budapest shows. Then follow 150 colour illustrations, works of French and Hungarian painters of the period. The PhD thesis was defended in December 2006 at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Institute of Art History. The consultant was Dr. Prof. Krisztina Passuth. RECENT RELATED PUBLICATIONS BY JUDIT BOROS: "Mindenki nem lehet Thorma János." In: Bay, Miklós, Boros, Judit and Murádin, Jenő. Thorma. Budapest: Körmendi Galéria, 1997, pp. 26-35. "Szempontok Ferenczy Károly modernizmusához." In: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Evkönyve 1991-2001. Művészettörténeti tanulmányok Sinkó Katalin köszöntésére. Budapest: HNG, 2002, pp. 253-257. "Az aktfestés gyakorlata a Julian Akadémián." In: Imre, Györgyi ed. A modell. Női akt a 19. századi magyar művészetben. Budapest: HNG, 2004, pp. 328-337. "Egy magyar festő Párizsban. Munkácsy Mihály pályája 1870 és 1896 között / A Hungarian Painter in Paris. Mihály Munkácsy's Career between 1870 and 1896." In: Gosztonyi, Ferenc ed. Munkácsv a nagyvilágban /Munkácsy in the World. Budapest: HNG, 2005, pp. 33-60. "Egy világhírű magyar festő - Munkácsy Mihály pályaképe." In: Szemenkár, Mátyás ed. Munkácsy képek Erdélyben (and Munkácsy képek Kecskeméten). Budapest: Szemimpex Kiadó, 2007 and 2008, pp. 20-40. "A Munkácsy-atelier és a Munkácsy-tanítványok." In: Op. cit., pp. 41—45. "Magyar-francia művészeti kapcsolatok a 19. században." In: Boros, Judit ed. Barbizon francia és magyar ecsettel. Az európai tájfestészet mesterei / Barbizon through French and Hungarian eyes: masters of European landscape painting, Szentendre: PMMI, 2007, pp. 61-85. "Naturalista életképektől a realista kompozíciókig. Vaszary János festői pályájának első korszaka." In: Veszprémi, Nóra ed. Vaszary János (1867-1939) gyűjteményes kiállítása. Budapest: HNG, 2007, pp. 23-32. EXHIBITION CURATED BY JUDIT BOROS: Munkácsy a nagyvilágban. Munkácsy Mihály művei külföldi és magyar magán- és közgyűjteményekben (Munkácsy in the World. Mihály Munkácsy's Works in Private and Public Collections at Home and Abroad). Budapest: HNG, March 24July 31,2005.