Passuth Krisztina – Szücs György – Gosztonyi Ferenc szerk.: Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya 1904–1914 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2006/1)
AT HOME AND ABROAD - KRISZTINA PASSUTH: Wild Beasts of Hungary Meet Fauves in France
Henri Matisse: Luxe, calme et volupté, 1904. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, © Photo RMNI © Hervé Lewandowski, © Succession H. Matisse I HUNGART 2006 stockings. The curtain dropping down in the back and the floor are of the same dull red: they radiate the feeling of a boudoir. Such settings, together with the erotic overtones, were not really alien to the Hungarian Fauves; Ödön Márffy, Róbert Berény, and somewhat later József Rippl-Rónai (Cat. No. 221) and Lajos Tihanyi, all produced works that fully exploited these effects. The Hungarian artists were presumably familiar with the nude paintings of the French, with most of them at least. In the period beginning in 1904, they had a chance to see Matisse's paintings on six occasions, 82 as well as pictures by other painters, including Marquet, Camoin, and Manguin, at the Salon des Independents, the Galerie Berthe Weill and the great exhibitions of the Salon d'Automne. Those who temporarily resided in Paris during this time, like Czóbel, Márffy, Bornemisza, Berény, Perlrott, Kernstok, Egry and many more, naturally encountered the various manifestations of the new visual concept and style, without being fully aware of its significance. Collioure or the Bank of Zazar? Matisse painted his epoch-making Luxe, calme et volupté in 1904. 83 Although Matisse painted directly after nature 8 ", in this picture he conjured up an "idyllic pastoral." The same imaginary "pastoral" or animated "Arcadia" also appeared in a large-scale Hungarian composition. Although its importance cannot be compared to Matisse's, Bathers (Cat. No. 83) by Tibor Boromisza had a special importance in summarizing the achievements of modern Hungarian painting. The composition was born in Nagybánya in 1909, but its concept had been shaped by a combination of various intellectual trends and visual experiences. Although the artist conceived the composition in 1909, which was several years after his stay in Paris in 1905, we can still detect a relationship between Bathers and several paintings by the French Nabis, or more precisely, by the masters of Pont-Aven. The list includes Soir trinitaire by Maurice Denis, or Madelaine by Emile Bernard, to mention only a few. 85 Its true counterpart is however Matisse's large composition. The female nudes completely abandoning themselves to leisure on the beach are in an organic unity with the surrounding landscape, the same way as Matisse's figures are in Luxe, calme et volupté. In contrast with the numerous figures in Matisse's painting, Boromisza used only three. One is under the impression that he has merely enlarged and paraphrased one section (the right-hand side) of Matisse's composition. The red-hot earth on the shore appears in Boromisza's painting as a large surface with greenish yellow hues. A system of smaller dots placed next to one another form the bodies of Matisse's figures and the bluish-greenish shades surrounding them. Boromisza also employs vibrating dots to construct the landscape and the nudes. The surface of the water, as well as
