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 - PARIS - KRISZTINA PASSUTH: Café Dôme
Lipót Herman: Pascin Drawing in Café Japan, 1912 Hungarian writer, Endre Bajomi Lázár used the following words to characterize this grimy little café, which later became an "ocean liner": "In the early years of the 20 th century, the Dôme had a small room painted in red and gold, the booths of which were filled mainly by the German Bohemians, the staff members of the Munich-based satirical paper Simplicissimus. Even as early as that, the place had a distinctly cosmopolitan character, because it was patronized by pale and lanky Scandinavians, as well as Americans, who were drunk most of the time." 12 The painter Rudolf Levy and the painter/art dealer Walter Bondy were the first to arrive on the scene in 1903; they formed the nucleus of the group, which soon began to attract new members such as the art historian/art collector Wilhelm Uhde, the painter Hans Purrmann, the draughtsman Jules Pascin, the painter Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann, the collectors Adolphe Basler and Bela Hein 13 and many other painters, critics and bohemians. Born of a wealthy family in Stettin, Rudolf Levy arrived in Paris in 1903. Like so many others, he had just finished his studies in Munich. Almost from the moment of his arrival, he became a regular at the Dôme, where he soon achieved immense popularity. For Levy, the Dôme primarily meant an intellectual centre. Among the so-called "dômiers", he became the "arch-dômier". 14 The role he played at the café befitted nicely his decision to enroll in Matisse's school, which he continued to visit from 1908 right until the closure of the institute. He was one of Matisse's favourite students. 15 The inside cover of Adolphe Basler's book entitled Henri Matisse, 1924 We know about the other "founder", Walter Bondy, from Rudolf Levy's recollections. In the autumn of 1903, when they met for the first time in the Dôme, neither of them suspected that the place would develop into a spiritual meeting point within a couple of decades. 16 Similarly to Rudolf Levy and many others, Walter Bondy had just arrived in Paris straight from Munich. There are conflicting reports about both his place of origin and his other interests apart from painting. According to the available biographical information, the artist of Czech descent was born in Budapest. He studied in Munich simultaneously with Czóbel. He, too, arrived in Paris in the autumn of 1903 and, together with Levy, he spent part of his time in the Dôme. 17 But Bondy soon turned to art dealership, specializing in the antique trade, among others. The art critic and art dealer Adolphe Basler, who remembered Levy as one of the legendary figures of the Montparnasse, described Bondy as a painter and a scholarly art dealer. 18 It is quite within the realm of possibilities that Bondy was actually of Hungarian descent, and cooperated with Béla Hein and József Brummer, two art dealers of Hungarian origin. And as for "under-the-counter deals", the Café Dôme offered an ideal location for it. In 1927 in Munich, Bondy founded the magazine Kunstauktion, which was later renamed to Weltkunst. In Kunstauktion, he published several of his recollections about the Dôme. We know only bits and pieces about his career, which has never been properly researched. Thus the question arises about the identity of those artists who —outside the circle of the most prominent masters —played an active part in the art life of Café Dôme and the Montparnasse district, either Hungarians or foreigners who somehow came in contact, and cooperated, with Hungarians. The closest friendship emerged between Jules Pascin and Lipót Herman, but that came only later, in the year 1911, long after the foundation of the Dôme. That was when the Hungarian artist finally made it to Paris. As Herman put it in his memoirs, he discovered the Parisian counterpart of his favourite Budapest coffee house, Café Japán, when he got to know the artists' table of the Dôme. Here he met several excellent artists, including the unforgettable Pascin, who invited him to his table, where they spent many hours drawing together. Next year Pascin returned the visit, and became a regular guest at the Café Japán during his entire stay in Budapest. 19 Previously Endre Bajomi Lázár made the greatest effort to unveil the careers of those Hungarians who lived in Paris throughout this period and who were more or less linked to the art scene. Of those whose name he mentioned, the following artists belonged either to the Hungarian Fauves or to their circle of friends: Béla Czóbel, András Mikola, Sándor Galimberti, Dezső Orbán, Lajos Tihanyi, Vilmos Perlrott Csaba, Géza Bornemisza, Róbert Berény, Tibor Boromisza. 20 The painters mentioned above were not all in Paris simultaneously, and in fact not all of them were personally acquainted with each other. At the present stage of research, we cannot even tell which ones on the list considered the Dôme to be an essential place from the viewpoint of their artistic development. On comparing and analyzing the various sources available in the international literature, we find that Béla Czóbel was the Hungarian Fauve mentioned by name very soon. This is understandable to the extent that he was the one who exhibited his works at the Salon d'Automne of 1905, and who had an individual exhibition in Galerie
