Passuth Krisztina – Szücs György – Gosztonyi Ferenc szerk.: Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya 1904–1914 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2006/1)

FROM PARIS TO NAGYBÁNYA - GYÖRGY SZÜCS: Nagybánya, a Regional Centre

The school's studio, 1910s. Postcard hung on the walls. He even made sure

—and this is the point where the artists' colony links up with the activities of the museums

—to allocate a certain sum to purchasing the works of painters working at Nagybánya, which would be either displayed in the town's museum or hung in the offices of the town administration. He also produced a list of the necessary furniture: "To furnish the school rooms, we need equipment and furniture. For the time being, we specify the following items: 2 podiums, 2 screens, 20 easels, 1 large set of compartments (where the students can keep their things), 12 chairs (made of linden, without back support and of various heights), 2 wooden benches, 1 wooden chest, 1 coat-hanger. On top of that, later on we may also have need for a lockable desk and cupboard."

25 Once the school had taken possession of the building, it became possible to continue teaching throughout the winter, thus guaranteeing the continuity of the students' development. The teaching principles of the free school were based on the personal experience of the masters and, even more importantly, on the practice followed at Julian Academy of Paris: no plaster copies were used and the students worked by directly observing nature. Drawing and Sándor Ziffer: Village in Winter, 1910 Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest János Thorma correcting, 1910s. Photo: MNG painting nudes in the studio in the morning was followed by producing individual landscape studies in the afternoon, with the resulting works being assessed by the masters in charge of correcting; then came the evening discussions, when the students announced their verdicts on the works of their peers sometimes in a manner that varied from stern and formal to light and jocular. It was during the joint sessions that the students acquired the basic technical skills, on which to build their individual style later. Due to their increasing workload at the Academy of Fine Arts, Ferenczy and Réti were able to spend less and less time at Nagybánya after 1906 and 1913, respectively. In this way, Thorma was more and more left in charge of leading the school. In the period between the two World Wars, he formally became the school's leader as well as its defining personality

—both in a positive and in a negative sense. The world that was changing could not influence the painters' school, which firmly resisted the changes and thus provided a sense of security to its students; however, the growing rigidity of its artistic mentality and the unchanging nature of its intellectual microenvironment left their marks on the daily practices of teaching. It was understandable if the members of the young generation considered the established and proven practices to be burdensome and outmoded and were pressing for reforms, especially after they were confronted with the works Czóbel, Perlrott, Ziffer and Tihanyi had made under the impact of their Parisian journey, in the style that later became known as "Neo". During a study trip in Italy, Mikola made an interesting discovery in 1913, when he was confronted with the truth that the free school of Nagybánya, which was opposed to academic methods of teaching, was in fact negligent in providing basic training in art techniques: "We were taught artistic vision, rather than being trained for a profession."

26 Others were much more critical in assessing the situation before the World War. "From the position of 'l'état c'est moi', [members of the older generation] watch the buzzing activities around them with the pride and arrogance of Nero; puffed up with conceit about their own (mostly illusory) accomplishments, they stand back with a sarcastic smile, as the tide of the new movements begin to wash away the banks of their outmoded artistic positions, withdrawing to their fortresses that 'have no windows'

—as d'Annunzio would say

—, waiting for a siege that will never come, because the enemy turns to places where it can expect to find something. And then, when they do come