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: Hungarian Artists at the Salons of Paris

The Petit Palais at the beginning of the 20'

h century on a contemporary postcard The Grand Palais at the beginning of the 2(J

h century on a contemporary postcard The works were selected by a jury, which was renewed annually (fourfifth of the jury came from the administration, the founding members and the so-called sociétaires, and one-fifth from the honorary members). As a result, foreign artists were also eligible to become both sociétaires and members of the jury. Initially, finding an appropriate venue meant the greatest problem. When they launched the first Salon in 1903, the organizers had to settle for a few damp rooms in the basement of Petit Palais. However, the exhibition proved so successful that in 1904 it was moved to the Grand Palais, where the conditions were eminently suitable for holding prestigious exhibitions. in homage of Auguste Renoir, Odilon Redon, Toulouse-Lautrec and Cézanne within the exhibition. Cezanne's name carried as much weight then as Gauguin's had done a year earlier. Among the sociétaires, or core members, there were two future Fauves, Henri Matisse and Albert Marquet, as well as Ferenc Szikszay, a Hungarian Impressionist whose name has faded into oblivion by now. Although several of the French Fauves sent works to this exhibition, including Charles Camoin, Albert Marquet, Henri Manguin, Jean Puy, Georges Rouault and Henri Matisse (although the latter artist was only represented by two sculptures made of plaster), Fauvism as a shared style and a new artistic concept was still not plainly manifest at the time. While many Hungarian artists exhibited by then, none of them belonged to the future Fauves.

2 The key to the exhibition's success lay both in the novelty provided by the young artists and in the instant appeal guaranteed by the great masters. At the exhibitions of various sizes, the organizers paid homage to the great predecessors. On the first occasion they exhibited eight works by Paul Gauguin a few months after the artist's death, thus presenting his oeuvre as a model to be followed by young artists. In this way, they prepared the way for the emergence of the fundamentally new style that could be linked to Fauvism later. In 1904 more than two thousand artists exhibited works; in addition, a separate show was held All the more spectacular was the breakthrough that came in 1905, the year that clearly marked the Fauves' explosive appearance on the scene. With their retrospective exhibitions, the salons paid homage to the art of Ingres, Manet and Utamaro. Three hundred and ninety-seven artists took part in the exhibition, sending a total of 1625 compositions.

3 How such a small team was able to strike an individual voice within such a huge mass of artworks can partly be explained by the artistic power of the group, and partly by the arrangement of the paintings. Georges Desvallières, Gustave Moreau's friend and the Fauves' patron who was Catalogue of the Salon d'Automne, 1905 Henri Rousseau in his studio. Archive photograph