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 Krisztina ACZÉL: Mother-and-Child and Child Representations by József Borsos

tion on breastfeeding and on the upbringing of children among mothers was lacking. The end of the 181 Os saw a decline in the number of representations of lactating mothers in the Parisian salons, and when it came to Viennese Biedermeier painting, it had even fewer examples than its French counterpart. Still, Die Mutterliebe (Motherly Love, 1839) by Josef Danhauser was one of the most popular paintings of the period (ÖGB). Only a very few depictions of lactating mothers were made in Hungarian painting in the first half of the 19th century. The painting Mother Nursing her Child (1842, ill. 47) by one of Friedrich von Amerling's students, the prematurely deceased Albert Tikos, is on display at the Hungarian National Gallery's permanent exhibition. As regards composition and the hidden references to Madonna representations, the work resembles an earlier work by his master, entitled Motherly Love. In the series of mother-and-child representations paying tribute to motherly love, the depictions of mothers attending their sick child became popular in the 19th century. In József Borsos' painting Motherly Core (Cat. No. 79) the mother, who is wearing black and is shown crouching over the cradle of her child, has her back turned to the viewer, keeping a dripping vessel for hot water close at hand. The motif of children's sickness was usually meant to focus attention on the importance of motherly care, although in this particular case most of the attention seems to be focused on the attractive woman wearing a corset and the charming bourgeoisie interior. A typical element in the peculiar, idyllic world of Biedermeier paintings was the child lost in his or her own world. Placed in the company of their parents or teachers, and playing with their toys either by themselves or in the company of others, these children usually represented ingenuousness and unfettered, pure joy. However, Borsos preferred to paint portraits of children in poses that one would usually associate with adult portraits. One of the most representative Biedermeier child representations in Hungarian painting, which is a full-length portrait of a three or four-year-old boy born to an affluent middle class family, was earlier attributed to Borsos (III. 48). In those days portrait painters often depicted children with toys in their hands so as to indicate their sex and also to provide clues about their family circumstances. In Henrik Weber's work (1845, ill. 49), a slightly older boy holding a sword is shown in a landscape surroundings, in harmony with the traditions of English portrait painting. In the portrait of a handsome boy, looking about four years old - named Anton von Oelzelt-Nevin (1854-1925), who grew up to become an internationally acclaimed professor of philosophy - the model is shown in a pose usually associated with adults (III. 50). Instead of scattering accessories around him, Borsos concentrated on his fine features. There are a number of portraits by Borsos, which depict girls, but unfortunately we know nothing about the models of either of these compositions. In the portrait of the girl with the brown eyes, who is looking squarely at the viewer (Cat. No. 29), only the face is executed in great details and with an almost ethereal sensitivity: as the body and the dress were left unfinished, it appears that the painting was never completed. In child portraits painted after the early 1830s, it became increasingly frequent that only the faces were completed. In the composition entitled The Thirsty Little Child (1851, ill. 51 ), Borsos placed the children in a landscape surrounding. In the early days of photography, children were often shown dressed in peasant attire - a custom rooted in painting - and were placed in a landscape setting or against a backdrop imitating an open-air surrounding. Depicting a boy offering water to the little girl, this painting, too, was presumably meant to be a portrait, even though the children do not look into the eyes of the viewers. A favourite child representation of the period, one that allowed a glimpse into the children's world while also carrying hidden messages, was the topic of children getting into mischief in a painter's studio. Borsos executed his own version of this topic in 1851. He may have known some Austrian archetypes, such as Josef Danhauser's The Sleeping Painter (one version: Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern), and these could have inspired him. Behind the painter slumbering in the foreground of Danhauser's composition, we see four children in the act of repainting one of the artist's works. Borsos slightly rearranged the composition in his own work: the painter's figure was moved close to the edge of the painting and was obfuscated in other ways, too, for example with the help of the lighting. (Cat. No. 92, ill. 53) József Borsos was a typical artist of his age. He had a peculiar way of mixing his own impressions with the splendid depictions of the settings, elegant postures and sensuous rendering of materials. He undeniably had a penchant for the popular themes of the age. His compositions - despite the fact that many of them have survived only in reproduction - continue to offer us a vivid account of contemporary life.