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 - JUDIT BOROS: The Synthesizer. Vilmos Perlrott Csaba's Painting

One of the first canvases he painted in Kecskemét, entitled Calvary

52 and completed in the summer of 1911, summed up Perlrott's artistic experiences in a single powerful vision, anticipating the later direction of his individual style: executed in Fauve colours and incorporating some Cubist elements, the painting could even be regarded as the harbinger of Expressionism. On the grant that the composition earned him, Perlrott traveled back to Spain. From 1912 through 1914, he spent the winters in Paris and Munich and the summers in Kecskemét. Between 1914 and 1916 he lived in Kecskemét, using the proceeds from the sale of his paintings to finance his trip to Switzerland in 1917-1918. Meanwhile, he also visited Nagybánya, where nine of his paintings were shown at the jubilee exhibition of 1912.

53 During the years he spent at Kecskemét, the compass of his painting broadened. He painted street scenes, figurai landscapes, still-lifes and interiors. Enjoying complete artistic freedom and relying on his instincts, he selected from the stylistic elements mastered throughout the earlier years the one that suited his actual composition best. He never let any theoretical considerations limit the freedom of his artistic invention. In his own words, he thought with his eyes and saw with his mind.

54 He regularly exhibited his works at various exhibitions in Paris, "as well as in London, Munich, Cologne, Berlin, Brussels, Viena [sic!] and Budapest," he wrote in 1914,

55 then continued as follows: "these elements in my modest and strenuous career should suffice to prove that my artistic aspiration? It is to lay the foundation stone of a modern, naturalistic art." However, this came to take place only a good fifteen years later, in the second half of the 1920s, when he returned to Hungary, and even more significantly to Nagybánya, from a long emigration. Notes 1 The photograph can be found in many catalogues and monographs about Matisse; in Hungarian see: Benedek, Katalin, Perlrott Csaba Vilmos (1880-1955) alkotói pályájának főbb állomásai [The Most Important Stages of Vilmos Perlrott Csaba's Career], Békéscsaba, Munkácsy Mihály Múzeum, 2005. 2 For more on Hungarian students in Matisse's school, see Gergely Barki's essay in this catalogue. 3 In his various writings relating the story of the start of his career, Vilmos Perlrott Csaba has always emphasized the years spent in Paris in Matisse's circle. The most important letters and interviews from the point of view of his biography in chronological order: Vilmos Perlrott Csaba' s letter to Gyula Szentiványí, Miskolc, 28 December, 1914, MNG Archives, 1276/1920, (in the following notes: Perlrott 1914); Perlrott Csaba, Vilmos, "Magamról" [About Myself], in: Perlrott Csaba Vilmos művészete [The Art of Vilmos Perlrott Csaba], introduction by Géza Bornemisza, Budapest, Dante, 1929, 9-14, (in the following notes: Perlrott 1929); Perlrott Csaba Vilmos: Életem (Somogyi Árpád kikérdezése) [My life (Árpád Somogyi's interview)], MTA MKI Archives, MDK-C-11 -60 [1956] (in the following notes: Perlrott 1956); Perlrott Csaba közlései [Perlrott Csaba's memoirs], noted down by László Bényi, no date, [around 1950] MNG Archives, 21 400/1982, (in the following notes: Perlrott around 1950). With the passing of the years, Perlrott gave the date of his arrival in Paris earlier and earlier. Art historians generally considered the 1929 version as the most probable and discussed Perlrott's role in the history of the Neos of Nagybánya and the Hungarian Matissestudents accordingly. But this date contradicts many documents and can not be reconciled with the chronology of the Matisse school either. 4 "I was among his select favourites, whom he invited every week to his studio, where he would explain his carefully arranged still-lifes, and these proved to be the most useful theoretical classes for us." Perlrott 1929, 13. According to the family legends of Perlrott's first wife, Margit Gráber, herself also a painter, Matisse gave Perlrott a painting dedicated to him. Later the painting was allegedly spotted in a private collection in Israel. Verbal information from György Sümegi. 5Perlrott 1914. 6The article in the journal Nagybánya is one of them: it mentions Vilmos Perlrott among the artists who were expected to arrive in May. Nagybánya, 30 April 1903, 4. Reprinted in: Tímár 1996, 312. See also a photograph from 1903 and two from 1904 (all three from the bequest of László Buzi): in the company of other young painters we can recognize Vilmos Perlrott. Most of the artists in the photographs were identified by László Buzi. MNG Archives, 18133-18135/1968. Last, but not least, we have a lists of the Nagybánya artists, on the bases of which István Réti published the members list of the free school and the artists' colony, in a year-by-year breakdown. Vilmos Perlrott is included in this list as a student at the free school in 1903 as well as in 1904. In his monograph published in 1944 Réti spoke clearly: "In 1903 he came to the Free School of Nagybánya, where he asked Béla Grünwald to correct his works. Later, until 1906, he worked in the school; after 1907, when he first returned from Paris, he worked at Nagybánya, but outside the schooi. In 1910 he followed Iványi Grünwald to Kecskemét." Réti 1994, 266-267, 326. 7 In 1914, in a letter to Lajos Szentiványi, Perlrott wrote that he had met József Koszta in 1904 and he went to Nagybánya in the summer of 1905 (Perlrott 1914). 8 In 1929 he said that he had met Koszta in 1904, but then he added that he had travelled on to Nagybánya in the same year, in the summer of 1904 (Perlrott 1929). Around 1955 he remembered that he had met Koszta in 1903, and after three months spent together in Abony, he arrived at Nagybánya on 23 June, 1903 (Perlrott 1956). In his interview with László Bényi he said something similar, also mentioning that he had also attended Ferenczy's school on the corner of Andrássy út and Vörösmarty utca (Perlrott around 1950). Furthermore, in a letter in 1942 to István Réti, he wrote that "I am not sure if my Master would not need a photograph of my picture painted during the winter of 1903/1904 in Nagybánya (Gypsies in the Granary), maybe I could get hold of its cliché." Vilmos Perlrott Csaba's letter to István Réti, Budapest, 26 May 1942, MNG Archives, 8167/1955. About Károly Ferenczy's private school, see: Kissné Budai, Rita, "Ferenczy Károly, a müvészetpedagógus", in: Angyalokra pedig szükség van. Tanulmányok Bernáth Mária tiszteletére [Károly Ferenczy, the art teacher, in: Angels are Necessary: Studies in Honour of Mária Bernáth], ed.: András, Edit, Budapest, MTA MKI, 2005, 79-88. About the Ferenczy School: 82-83. 9 Gypsies in the Granary, private collection, reproduced in: Perlrott 1929, III. 1. 10 Gypsies II. (Resting in the Afternoon), oil on canvas, 65 x 80 cm, not signed, Mű-Terem Galéria, Auction 13, April, 2003, 38. 11 Clothes Drying, oil on canvas, 111 x 121 cm, signed bottom right: Perlrott Vilmos 1905?, private collection, reproduced in: Kolonie der Träume: Nagybánya. Collegium Hungaricum - Berlin, 14. Februar bis 14. März 2002 im Gebäude der Botschaft der Republik Ungarn. Cat. 5. 42. 12 Perlrott 1929, 12. 13 Károly Ferenczy's letter to Elek K. Lippich, no place and date, [1906] 16 March, in: András-Bernáth 1997, 139. 14 Perlrott 1956. 15 Nagybánya, 5 October 1905, reprinted in: Tímár 1996, 360. 16 See Nagybánya, 30 August 1906, 4, reprinted in: Tímár 1996, 410-411 and Nagybánya és Vidéke, 2 September 1906, 2-3, reprinted in: Tímár 1996, 412. 17 As in his verbal and written memoirs dated from various times, Perlrott gave different dates as the beginning of his sojourn in Paris, it is worth reviewing these in a chronological order and to supplement them with further documents in order to shed light on this question. "I first arrived in Paris on 4 December, 1906, where one of my drawings won an award at the Académie Julien [sic] and as a consequence of this I became a pupil in the Spring of 1907 at Académie de la Grande Chaumière under Steinlein [sic!], the famous illustrator. He was the one who, on discovering my artistic goals and in appreciation of their merits, introduced me to Messieurs Henry Matisse and Paul Picasso, and it was in this company that I embarked on my artistic course, which I still continue to believe in and consider it to be the art of the future." Perlrott 1914; "I spend the winter of 1905 again in Nagybánya, where I continue to stay, with a few minor disruptions, until the end of autumn. [...] In 1905 I painted 'Gypsies', which Ferenczy took a liking to. In Pest he got me a small grant, on which I was able to travel to Paris." Perlrott 1929, 12. "In 1905 I went to Paris. [...] In 1905 I enrolled in Julien [sic!] Académie, but I found the atmosphere too conservative there, so I became a student of Henry Mattisse [sic!]." Perlrott 1956. See references to other documents in the following notes. 18 For more on this, see the letter of Béla Iványi Grünwald to István Réti to Rome, no date, [March 1906], MNG Archives, 10936/1959. 19 See Note 13. 20 "In other respects, the place bustles with life. There are about 80 painters hanging around here. Someone told me that Perlrott had just been awarded a grant by the state, and he is over the moon." János Thorma's letter to István Réti to Rome, Nagybánya, 12 June 1906, MNG Archives, 7524/1955. 21 Perlrott 1929 12-13. 22 Vilmos Perlrott Csaba's letter to István Réti, Paris 907 27/X, MNG Archives, 8168/1955. 23 Perlrott 1929, 13. 24 Perlrott 1929, 12. 25 See András Mikola's letters to István Réti, MNG Archives, 12825/1959 and 12831/1959. 26 Portrait d'un peintre (Cat. 3814), Partie de cour (with the same title: Cat. 3816, 3845, 3817) Étude de portrait (cat. 3817). See Dominique Lobstein, Dictionnaire des Indépendants 1884-1914, Dijon, edition de l'Echelle de Jacob, 2003, III. 27 "I was subjected to appalling attacks this summer by some young artists not to be named, who enjoyed such a tremendous reputation, naturally only at home, and who were expected to turn art upside down, and who declared an almost open boycott both on my person and on my art. [...] After what has happened, I have no intention to return to Nagybánya ever again, even though the thought pains me greatly, as I had spent so many pleasant days there, and I have so much to thank to the prominent gentlemen there." Vilmos Perlrott Csaba's letter to István Réti to Rome, Paris 907 27/X, MNG Archives, 8168/1955. 28 In a letter written in 1909 in a hurry, he informed Béla Lázár that he had no wish to take part in the exhibition of the "Seekers". "I intend tojóin another group," he explained, probably referring to Művészház. Vilmos Perlrott Csaba's letter to an unknown person, 909. 16/X, (?), MNG Archives, 4579/1974/a. Seven of the eight letters with the given inventory number were sent from Spain by Perlrott to