Nagy Ildikó szerk.: Rippl-Rónai József gyűjteményes kiállítása (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 1998/1)

TANULMÁNYOK / ESSAYS - BERNÁTH Mária: Egy közép-európai modell. Hatás és asszimiláció Rippl-Rónai József festői munkásságában

Pharmacy, to marvel at the new decorations by Besnard."

26 There is no reason to doubt that young Rippl, who was feeling artistically frustrated in 1889 and wished to find a way forward, extended his antennae in all directions and eagerly absorbed any new visual information that came to hand. Which are the values that may have seeped into Rippl-Rónai's art from Pre-Raphaelitism along the channels outlined above? First and most importantly, there is the picture format: the standing, elongated picture surface as a vehicle for elegance and aloofness. The elongated Pre-Raphaelite female figures discoursing with the divinities mostly fulfil the painter's aims in this respect. The Pre-Raphaelite painters did not paint figures: they suggested apparitions (plate 5). It would take us too far from our theme to reconstruct here the path of this painterly attitude in European art through Whistler to the French painters, from Khnopff to Klimt. There is space only to deal with Rippl-Rónai's female figures living in the elongated spaces of his canvases whose appearance is always elegant, ethereal and sophisticated. The other legacy of the Pre-Raphaelites continued by Rippl-Rónai is the transsubstantiated female profile, the slightly sfumato outline of the face, portrayed as the knower of hidden secrets. This sublimated ideal of beauty first appears in his Woman with a Cage and the Portrait of Margit Piátsek (cat. no. 19., 18.) and plays an important role later on as well. It is an emblematic representation of the female face that becomes an essential constituent of Rippl-Rónai's pictorial idiom. The Pre-Raphaelite example was thus strongly conducive to Rippl-Rónai's discovery of himself, but the mediating role of Whistler must also be kept in mind. Whistler was more British than American, and more French than British. The threads are interlaced. In his Memoirs, Rippl writes about Whistler: "in 1889 I heard about him from Besnard." "After the split of the Salon, around 1892 Whistler became the favourite and envied protagonist of this salon.

27 When the word spread that he would exhibit his portraits, everyone was looking forward eagerly to the opening, to seeing some very beautiful paintings which were nevertheless the product of an over-refined taste. And in most cases they were right, nobody was disappointed... Whistler brought back into use the elongated format of some old masters, and the female or male figures clad mostly in black or grey are always portrayed in a distinguished pose, whether standing or seated."

28 (plate 6) Were the subject-matter of this paper the art of Whistler, the importance of the initial Pre-Raphaelite influence upon him would have to be detailed, just as in the case of Rippl. It predetermined the format of his pictures and the nature of his female figures pointing beyond figurative representation. Rippl-Rónai had the opportunity to see his pictures frequently: at Durand Ruel's in 1888, at the Paris World Fair in 1889, in the Salon in 1890, and in 1891 in the Salon of the Champ de Mars which also showed Rippl's works. His picture My Mother (cat. no. 26/2.) was purchased by the French state for the Musée du Luxembourg in 1891.

29 What Rippl must have especially found inspiring in Whistler's painting was the colour reduction based on the transitions of greys and browns that he tended to use after the 1860s. In several of his works Whistler exercised this self-restraint based on the abandonment of expression in colour and the provision of an aura of peace and tranquil reflection. In the content of RipplRónai's early work, it is highly intriguing and significant that in France he was captured by this very Whistlerian restraint - and that in the very years when Gauguinism was most clamorously triumphant with its harsh, pure colours as mediated by the Nabis, as also in the work of Rippl's immediate circle of friends.

30 One can imagine what a tormenting struggle it must have been for a colorist like Rippl-Rónai to express himself in other ways than by means of the divine gift he possessed. From the 1890s onwards, one of the main constituents of his style was the restrained, soft tone, an exquisite and idiosyncratic artistic medium which helped him create works like Bowlers, My Grandmother, and Lady with a black crêpe (cat. no. 17., 26., 32.). This greyish period must also have been motivated by his fear lest he should relapse into the realistic, life-like representational art he had just begun to transcend. The new style was a kind of abstraction, an intentional avoidance of representing the materialistic and everyday world, for reality seemed to be the arch enemy of his new style. This is the point in the investigation of the influences and their adaptation by Rippl at which one can arrive in French terrain. Before embarking on the role of the Nabis, a brief detour is required to consider Eugène Carrière. He must have caught Rippl's attention at an early date, as he spoke to Munkácsy about him, but the master cooled his enthusiasm with the remark: "Who the devil has ever seen such bloated figures in smoke?"

31 Although Rippl-Rónai wrote in a letter: "I have never been compared to Carrière by those in Paris - that's just a bee in Malonyay's bonnet",

32 things are not quite so clear-cut. Firstly, there is proof that he was in fact compared to him: when his pictures were shown at Bings in 1897, the reviewer for Gil Bias reproached him, inter alia, for the "figures vanishing cleverly in mist in the manner of Carrière".

33 Impasto painting with its brownish hues was indeed close to Rippl's style; but in regard to colour, or the negation of colour, Whistler's influence is more pronounced. As for the hazy air of mystery which, to be sure, Rippl handled most cautiously - other examples can also be cited. Looking at the PreRaphaelite Burne-Jones' Green summer,

34 one does not necessarily rush to Carrière to find an analogy to the soft, sensual vibration of Rippl's tones. (Plate 7) Rippl might after all have been right in protesting, although at least in the techniques applied - Carrières stylistic realm and his are related, by however thin a thread. It must be made clear that no underestimation of their influence is meant by comparing Rippl-Rónai's stylistic devices with the main tendencies of the "Nabis style". Of course, no homogeneous Nabis style can be spoken of, but there are a number of essential characteristics. Rippl-Rónai's contact with this group of artists has probably been the most thoroughly elaborated by research. It is, however, questionable as to how reliable are the data used as the frame of reference for this peri-