Földes Mária: „... a szelídség szobra” - Válogatás Ferenczy Béni szobrászművész hagyatékából (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2005/2)

SUMMARY "... The Sculpture of Gentleness" Selection from the Bequest of Sculptor Béni Ferenczy The material of our exhibition was selected from the collection held by the Ferenczy Family Art Foundation. The works in its collection derive from a dual estate. After the death of the sculptor Béni Ferenczy (1890-1967), his widow kept his estate for several years; it was from this extraordinary material - with exception of a few sculptures and drawings belonging to the artist's daughter - that the Ferenczy Museum was established in Szentendre in 1972. Mrs Béni Ferenczy, Madam Erzsi (1904-2000), however, kept the works she was particularly attached to, including many studies, variants on themes, the plaster originals of statues, moulds, and several documents. Her avowed intent was to keep the material together, and present them to the public in a future collection. Accordingly, in 1993, she established the Foundation in order to carry out her intent after her death. In her will, she left these cherished works to the Foundation in order to preserve and maintain the œuvre of Béni Ferenczy in both its intellectual and material aspects. The Foundation, with assistance from the Hungarian National Gallery, seeks to fulfil her will by arranging this exhibition. Béni Ferenczy was born in an exceptional family. His father was the notable painter Károly Ferenczy, who was one of the founders of the Nagybánya artists' colony and belonged to the great renovators of Hungarian painting. His mother, Olga Fialka, had started out as a painter, but, after her marriage to Károly Ferenczy, gave up her independent artistic ambitions to support her husband in his aspirations and take care of their three children. Having an excellent sense of pedagogy, a European education and great human uprightness, she created an inspiring intellectual atmosphere, a high standard of taste and moral conduct in which the Ferenczy children grew up and found their profesÁlló fiú, 1962 után (14)