Passuth Krisztina – Szücs György – Gosztonyi Ferenc szerk.: Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya 1904–1914 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2006/1)
HUNGARIAN FAUVES CASE STUDIES - GERGELY BARKI: The Evolution of Czóbel's Fauvism in the Mirror of his Early Portraits
25. Béla Czóbel (?): Portrait of Ervin Körmendi Frim, cca. 1906-1907. Cat. No. 115. 1907 Salon des Indépendants as follows: "Why, here we have the future pride of Lipótváros [a quarter of Budapest] and Béla Lázár's favourite, Zobel! [sic!] Last year he caricatured Rónai, this year it is Gauguin's turn. And I must say, I have never seen anyone taking it to such perfection! I shall make no attempt to describe it, as it would be impossible. I merely quote André Székely's words: 'Last year he was a timid lamb (as you could see it for yourself), this year he is a fierce lion.'" 55 As the latter sentence clearly reveals, this was the moment when Czobel became a true Fauve. On this occasion, the wild canvases he showed in the Fauves' room caused a genuine sensation. Although Étienne Charles misspelled the painter's name, he is the one who informs us that Czóbel's two paintings in the catalogue were portraits of children. 56 Vauxcelles, who had finally figured out Czóbel's sex, was still in the dark about his country of origin (Hungarian or Polish). 57 It was on this occasion that he put the label 'uncouth Fauve' (fauve inculte) on the painter. He stood by this view in his report on the next great exhibition at Salon d'Automne, when he described the artist as a stammering, uneducated foreigner. 58 In her autobiographical piece, Gertrude Stein mentioned Czóbel's memorable, wild female nude she had seen in the spring of 1907. 59 Along with all the other of his paintings exhibited there, this nude is at an unknown location. We cannot identify the two portraits of children, either. In fact, we have no information about either the identity of the children or the location of the surroundings. However, we do have a previously unpublished letter Czóbel wrote to his Hungarian patron, Béla Lázár, just one month before the opening of the exhibition. 60 The content of the letter suggests that Czóbel intended to include among the exhibited works some of the paintings he had made in Hungary. He also mentioned the possibility of being able to show his works alongside the compositions of his fellow Hungarians in a few separate rooms (this turned out to be the actual arrangement 61 ), although the first person plural may have referred to the Fauves as a group. After that Czobel was, indeed, listed among the wildest of the Fauves. 62 Although we do not know the works he exhibited at that time, we can form a fairly good picture on the basis of the critics' reviews: "At the Salon des Indépendants, Béla Czóbel is the front-man of the Hungarian contingency. He produces strong drawings: drawings in the sense that we now like to think of them. Instead of sharp contours drawn around the forms, his lines seem to come alive; the seemingly casual dynamism of his lines expresses softness as well as a motionless yet pulsating rhythm, while carefully avoiding any details that are irrelevant to the painterly composition. [...] This drawing is filled
