E. Csorba Csilla - Sipőcz Mariann: Arany János és a fényképezés. Országh Antal fotográfus /1821-1878/ pályaképe (Budapest, 2019)
E. Csorba Csilla: Az Arany család fényképésze, Országh Antal (1821-1878)
Summary Csilla E. Csorba Antal Országh (1821-1878) One of the results of the János Arany Memorial Year (2017) has been research encompassing an until now unduly forgotten, diverse 19th-century artist’s oeuvre. Antal Országh was born in Máramarossziget (today Sighetu Marmaţiei, Romania) in 1821. He studied history as a pupil of István Horvát in Pest, then joined the army. In 1848 he with several others went over from the imperial army to the side of the Italians and following the surrender of Venice in 1849 he fled to Constantinople. After briefly staying there, he emigrated to Paris where he lived until 1863. Országh dated his letter already front Paris in January 1850. He lived at 6 rue Vaugirard and had a studio first alone and later jointly with a French female photographer, Marie Victoire Chastanier, at 18 rue de l’Odéon. Besides the Hungarian spelling, he also wrote his name as Antoine Orzach, Orsague and A d’Orszagh. He advertised his studio as having the expertise of the technique “sur érnail et albumine” and he could also be commissioned to make “perfected light drawings on canvas” as well as “burnt-in” images on genuine porcelain. The studio existed with Országh performing distance work until 1874. In 1855 he published six of his lithographed ink drawings and exhibited at the Paris World Exhibition. In emigration he earned his living with translation and interpreting, while his meticulous ink drawings recalling miniatures made him popular. He was acquainted with aristocrats, artists, members of the emigre community, including Count Gyula Andrássy, Ferenc Pulszky and Henrik Dembinszky, the painter J-B. Camille Corot and Alexandre Dumas Snr. Országh and Dumas planned to launch a paper for children. From the beginning of emigration his ambition was to develop his career in writing, in parallel with his activity in the arts and photography. He frequently corresponded with editors of papers published in Pest, particularly with the circle of Ferenc Császár and István Friebeisz. He was the Paris correspondent of Divatcsarnok (Hall of Fashion) and sent a large number of pictures about fashion and other subjects on commission for Hungarian readers. The translation of the saga The Mohicans of Paris by Alexandre Dumas Snr. was one of his great undertakings. The Aranys had the publication comprising 32 volumes in their library. Granted an amnesty, he returned to Hungary at the end of 1862. He opened a photographic studio at 3 Kerepesi Road in January 1863, but it was officially open only for nine months. His photographic oeuvre comprises altogether just a few dozen images; nevertheless, his name permanently went down in the history of photography. From an early age, Országh was interested in the history of the Castle of Huszt and on the model of codex scribes he worked on it all his life. His text is the translation of Simoncsich’s Latin work, but he added some new information and documents, and he decorated the increasingly growing volume with illuminated miniature drawings, initials and photographs on ceramic. He often included aspects of his personal life in the work of cultural history. The text and pictures enhancing one another relate the story of the artist, who regarded himself as unsuccessful, and the romantic history of the castle ruins as a memento. Throughout his life he wanted it to be held in the National Museum, therefore before his death he had it bound in leather, decorated with ivory and gilded. His adventurous and innovative career related to Hungary’s cultural life in the middle of the 19th century in many ways, thus including the life of the Arany family. Impoverished and not understood, he took his own life in 1878. 77
