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 - Sabine GRABNER: „Wonderful work, it could almost be Amerling's!". József Borsos'Student Years in Vienna

make direct contact with Amerling in his first years there, as the Austrian artist had left Vienna in September 1840 and only returned from Italy three years later, on June 29,1843. Although portrait painting was not a subject at the Academy, the young Hungarian painter was able to acguire useful skills in drawing and composition, as well as in the visual interpretation of literary and historical themes. One of the teachers was the traditionalist Josef Danhauser, who enjoyed tremendous popularity among the students. As for Danhauser, he bitterly complained about the limits of professional freedom as early as May 1838, just six months after taking up his post. More than anything, it was the presence of conceptual differences with regard to art that made it impossible for him to cooperate with the "stylists" - as the most vocal professors, Joseph von Führich and Leopold Kupelwieser, were referred to. Danhauser guite simply could not envisage the possibility of reconciling his bourgeois genre scenes with the Academy's predominantly religious and historical approach. As a result, in January 1842 he handed in his resignation. Apparently Danhauser's influence on Borsos' work proved enduring, since both the narrative mode and the compositional technigue of his paintings - The Little Painter (1851, Cat. No. 92, ill. 53), Motherly Care (1845, Cat. No. 79), The Dissatisfied Painter (1852, Cat. No. 97, ill. 25) or The Alms (Cat. No. 90) -are reminiscent of the pictures Danhauser painted in the late 1830s. It is guite possible that Borsos himself drew the same conclusions about the situation at the Academy, with the result that he may even have interrupted his studies in 1842. Presumably, Borsos continued to maintain good relations with Danhauser in private life right until the master's untimely death in May 1845. Although there are no actual sources to confirm this, the general consent in specialist literature is that Borsos became Waldmüller's student in 1842. Chief curator of the Imperial Academy's collection of paintings since 1829, and also a man with broad teaching experience, thanks to his numerous private pupils, Waldmüller was busy at the time setting up his master class, which he continued to run until about 1854. Originally, he meant to put his talents into the service of academic teaching, demanding extensive education reforms. But on seeing that his recommendations were not taken up, and the academic committee turned down his pamphlets issued in 1847 and 1848, he finally drew his conclusion and called for the abolition of art education institutions. In his view, drawing after nature should have been the first and foremost teaching technique in art education, while all methods involving copying - of drawings, paintings or sculptures should have been prohibited. Only verbal instructions were allowed: the master should never pick up the brush, nor was he allowed to give guidance to the students through drawings, as these would encourage the students to copy, leading astray their inborn artistic instincts. After this, Waldmüller was sent into retirement, with his pension halved byway of punishment. The scope of the present study does not permit the author to provide a detailed account of the manner in which Waldmüller's methodology was criticised and trashed by both his colleagues at the Academy and the art critics, with Rudolf Eitelberger leading the pact. The fact is that Waldmüller stood by his students and the idea of artistic progress, demonstrating tremendous vitality and considerable rhetoric skills. Waldmüller talked about some 80 students whom he gathered around himself. Certainly the most famous of them were Mihály Zichy, József Borsos and August von Pettenkofen. The precise form of the interaction between Waldmüller and Borsos cannot be reconstructed now, but the results are clearly recognizable. The benefits of his association with the master included "a mature technique based on fine details" and the ability to capture individual human characteristics. As we have mentioned earlier, one of Waldmüller's students was August von Pettenkofen, Borsos' friend during his early years in Vienna. Although years later Pettenkofen criticised Waldmüller's technique, claiming that the master was "always wanting to add one more brushstroke to his compositions", his own technical thoroughness was still due to Waldmüller's method of teaching. In general, he was of the opinion that "the academic method of artist training destroyed art", a view wholeheartedly shared by Borsos. It appears that only Danhauser was able to exert a profound influence on both of them, because not even Pettenkofen could deny the impact of the corrector - especially in the case of his earlier portraits (III. 41 ). In any case, it seems almost certain that the two artists of nearly the same age, while living in the same studio, discussed and applied the instructions of their masters. Whether their friendship continued beyond the 1840s, it is impossible to tell from the available sources. But as for the possibility of the two artists' exchanging artistic ideas later on, that can safely be ruled out in view of the different artistic paths they chose to follow. Beginning with the late 1840s, Borsos vigorously turned to bourgeois themes, which afforded him the best opportunity to show off his virtuoso technique. It was roughly the same time that Amerling's influence became clearly discernible in his works. When exactly the two artists met, it is not possible to unravel now. Nevertheless, their relationship must have been more than that between master and student, as seen from the fact that Borsos became the godfather of Amerling's grandchild. The group of painters who gathered around Amerling in those years is referred to in the specialist literature as his students. It included Joseph Aigner, Eduard Boutibonne, Count(ess?) Berta Nákó, Károly Sterio and Albert Tikos. According to his first biographer, Ludwig August Franki, Amerling had the following to say to his pupils: "Please, observe carefully! I cannot hold your hands. If there is anything inside you, it will show up in your paintings eventually." Amerling pointed Borsos in a direction, which suited his mentality and artistic ideas equally well. Even if the Hungarian painter never took lessons from Amerling in the traditional sense, this master was still the one who exerted the greatest influence on his art from the start.