Veszprémi Nóra - Szücs György szerk.: Borsos József festő és fotográfus (1821–1883) (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2009/4)

BORSOS JÓZSEF, A FESTŐ / JÓZSEF BORSOS THE PAINTER - Életképek/Genre Paintings

(1850, Cat. No. 91), along with many other similar compositions, was much indebted to the piquant pictures of 18th-century French genre painting (and drawing).These paintings by Borsos fitted into the Neo-Rococo trend that was very much in vogue in Europe at the time: the details of the painting, the furniture and the dresses all had a Rococo character.The moral lesson, which was occasionally there in Danhauser's case, was completely missing from Borsos'works, which often earned him scolding from the critics for "debauchery" and "superficiality". In our view, the compositions painted around 1856, which are set outdoors rather than inside a salon, can also be classified as salon genre scenes, because they have figures and themes that are akin to those featured in salon genre paintings (Cat. Nos. 108-109). These compositions seem to have been made in celebration of the alleged superficiality: the swirling dresses of the female characters are given prominent emphasis, while their figures are bathing in strange, pink shades of light. At the same time, the manner of execution is not as meticulous as in the case of Girls after the Ball, for example, but rather broader and more impulsive. There is a typical 19th-century genre that is on the borderline between portraits and genre paintings: the ideal paintings represent the ideal of a feeling, a notion or a human type - there is a type, which links it to genre painting, but there is no action, which links it to portraits. Some of the ideal paintings are emblematic genre paintings simplified down to the essence; the depictions of the theme of pigeon post is a perfect example of this category (Cat. No. 106,110-111 ). Another form can be traced to the ethnographical representations that became popular in the second half of the 18th century: a representative of a certain ethnic group is portrayed in characteristic attire. The majority of the ideal paintings show women of ideal beauty. However, there are also ideal paintings for age groups and even certain trades and professions. Since ideal paintings were both popular and marketable, copies and variations were made of the most successful compositions. Especially popular were Friedrich von Amerling's ideal paintings, which showed ideal female beauties of the Oriental type, using characteristic light effects. In the 20th century numerous copies, imitations and unsigned works based on Amerling's ideal paintings were attributed to Borsos. If nothing else, the poor quality of these paintings questions his authorship. However, for the first time we publish a painting of high quality, signed by Borsos, which can prove that the artist did, indeed, create this type of composition (Cat. No. 81 ). There are other pictures among the signed ideal paintings that bear the hallmark of Borsos' characteristic style. With its curvy forms, the Woman with a Basket of Flowers (Cat. No. 85) is a characteristic example of the 1840s, which continues in the style of The Grape Seller (Cat. No. 75). However, the facial type of Twilight (Cat. No. 95) already resembles the Neo-Rococo genre paintings of the 1850s. The two paintings by Borsos, in which he dressed his characters in historical costumes, also fall into the category of ideal paintings (Cat. Nos 100,104). They cannot be called historical genre paintings, because those are depictions of events from the private lives of historical personalities, on the borderline between historical paintings and genre scenes. By contrast, the characters in Borsos' paintings are nameless persons. Similar works appeared in exhibitions in the middle of the century in large numbers. Although the manner of execution in these two paintings by Borsos deviated from the style of the genre paintings showing young girls, which the artist made in the same period: for the sake of the serious subject, Borsos decided to use less vivid colours and sharper shadows. V.N.