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 - Eszter BÉKEFI József Borsos'Painting in the Light of the Biographical Facts

This political attitude was present in Vienna during the 1850s, just as it had been before the revolution. While Barabás, who worked in Hungary, was employed by members of the so-called "noble resistance", Borsos in Vienna sought out the clients, who remained loyal to the Court and could open him the door to the highest circles. The crowning success of his efforts was a large still life, which was bought by the Emperor himself and then sent to the 1855 Paris World Fair. The Emperor's favour probably had something to do with his connections to Prince Paul Anton Esterházy, who descended from a long line of traditionally conservative, aulic magnates. At the beginning of the century Prince Esterházy worked as a diplomat in Metternichs service. In 1842 he returned to Hungary and joined the conservative party. In 1848 he served in Batthyány's government as the "King's personal minister": his task was to represent Hungary's foreign interests at the court. Esterházy became an extremely influential maecenas of Borsos, especially throughout the 1850s. He owned the painting Girls after the Ball (Cat. No. 91, ill. 29), which has been Borsos' most popular composition to this day. In 1852 he also commissioned the artist to execute his large, representative portrait for the National Museum (Cat. No. 36, ill. 12). Therefore, those were the years when Borsos reached the peak of his career: he was highly recognized in Vienna and, initially, also in Hungary. He is known to have worked for the families of the Andrássys, the Pálffys, the Szirmays, and the Imrédys (Cat. Nos 6, 38, 46, 19, 56, 47, 71). He was also approached by the wealthier members of the bourgeoisie, people like the businessman Miklós Holczer, the Kiss family from the banking world, or the architect Mátyás Zitterbarth (ill. 21 ) and the opera singer Ferenc Siéger from the art world (Cat. Nos 34, 57-59, 35, 42). His genre scenes were also successful. It is a testimony to his high standing with the art circles that both the Art Society of Pest and the Kunstverein of Vienna bought works from him for the purpose of giving them away in a lottery (The Dissatisfied Painter, Cat. No. 97, ill. 25, and After the Battle, Cat. No. 104 a, respectively). In the meantime, some critical comments of Borsos' work began to appear in the Hungarian press, and even some of his earlier admirers grew doubtful. Nevertheless, his style seemed to remain the same - it was perhaps his clientele that changed. The Neo-rococo tonal values found more favour with his wealthy clients than with his critics of rather more puritanical tastes. All we can offer by way of giving an explanation for the motives, which eventually led him to give up painting for the sake of photography, is a summary of earlier views. We know for sure that Borsos left Vienna and moved back to Hungary in 1861. He did not give up painting completely: his works dated from 1861 show him in full possession of his earlier artistic skills. What is more, contemporary newspaper articles informed their readers that he opened a painting school. However, that enterprise probably proved unsuccessful, unlike his photography studio, which soon became profitable. Compositions of genuine artistic value by Borsos did not survive from this period. The fine details were still there, but they became hollow and routine procedures. Unfortunately, the experts - and most notably the art dealers - fell into the bad habit of dating the unsure and mediocre works of Borsos to this period. Several of his paintings from this period have one thing in common: they all surfaced in the 1930s, throughout the years when it was decidedly helpful, if a painting was attributed to Borsos. In the 1920s and the 1930s, after several decades of relative obscurity, Borsos suddenly became a fashionable painter, in a manner that in today's usage would qualify as something of a cult. In Hungarian art dealership, which had been in full swing by then, Borsos' art was very much in demand, with his paintings fetching prices that were on par with those paid forthe works of Gyula Benczúr, Mihály Munkácsy or József Rippl-Rónai. Between the two World Wars, almost every major collection of old masters' works included some paintings by Borsos.