Róka Enikő szerk.: Zichy Mihály, a „rajzoló fejedelem” (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2007/4)

„Un monstre de génie" • Zichy Mihály és Théophile Gautier FÖLDI ESZTER

'Un monstre de génie' • Mihály Zichy and Téophile Gautier ESZTER FÖLDI The words of a famous French critic, Téophile Gautier (1811-1872), un monstre de génie, written about Zichy in the winter of 1858 and 1859, seem to have influenced the reception of the art of Mihály Zichy in Hungary. This fraction of a sentence haphazardly taken by contemporary Hungarian critics from Gautier's long and enthusiastic article dedicated to the art of a previously unknown painter to him has ever since been a cornerstone of specialist literature. However, this analysis is concerned with the whole of Gautier's criticism as well as trying to throw some light on the artistic and human influence of their friendship on the rest of Zichy's life-work. Originally Gautier wanted to become a painter. However, in 1829 he met Victor Hugo, the main figure of French romanticism, and their acquaintance made a lasting influence on his subsequent career. He gave up painting and turned to literature, thereby becoming a most fervent defender and representative of romanticism as well as joining a group of young romanticists who stood for the brotherhood of literature and painting. He was stressing the social character of art as opposed to the group of advocates of art utile which was being formed around 1830. Gautier stood for an absolute form of art which was to be achieved through the perfection of forms, clearly distinguishing between beauty and usefulness in the process of creating works of art, and by doing so, he became a prophet of /' art pour I 'art. However, Gautier was not tied down by empty formalism, because he was convinced that anything beautiful was at the same time rich in intellectual substance. Gautier's literary activity was complemented with criticisms which made him an influential figure of contemporary art life of France. He contributed to the daily La Presse between 1836 and 1855, wrote criticisms for Moniteur Universel from 1855 till he died, as well as annually publishing his Salon from 1833 onwards. A great number of his criticisms of fine arts were not only diverse, but were lacking a strict code of aesthetics either. Nevertheless, a set of ideological unity is clearly discernible in them whose main elements comprised the quest for perfection in forms, the cult of beauty, the adherence to the idea of /' art pour I 'art, including the rejection of 'intentional art' and juste milieu. On the basis of such aesthetic concepts Gautier held the arts of Delacroix and Ingres in equally high esteem as well as appreciating certain genres commonly considered as popular, that is, newspaper illustrations, caricatures, graphics, thereby acknowledging the activities of Daumier, Gavarni, and most of all, Gustave Doré, who was a close friend of his. In the course of his autumn trip to St Petersburg in 1858 he met Mihály Zichy who had by that time been a respected portrait and aquarelle painter, kept receiving commissions from the Russian tsar, as well as being popular with the wider public. On visiting Zichy's studio, Gautier wrote an enthusiastic criticism on the Hungarian artist and it was subsequently published in Journal de Saint-Pétersbourg and in the prestigeous L'Artiste of Paris. At the same time, this article is an improtant source of Zichy's early period in Russia. In his writing Gautier highlighted Zichy's works entitled Florentine Orgy, Grave Robbers, Jewish Martyrs (fig. 71, 87-88.), as well as acknowledging his pictures of other genres, such as his animal still lives, hunting scenes made at the commission of the tsar, or aquarelle pictures from The Album of Coronation. (fig. 100.) He compared Zichy with, among others, Delacroix, Gavarni, Goya, finally reviewing the special character of Zichy's talent by calling him un monstre de génie, and by doing so, he put him on the same level as Gustave Doré.