Prohászka László: Equestrian Statues - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1997)

Girl with Foal

Pátzay was a realist, too, and a realist who carefully avoided bombastic posing, preferring well-balanced artistic solutions. This piece is a worthy representative of his art, uniting the classic beauty of the horse with the calm of the rider, suggesting the disciplined proficiency of the athlete.

The erection of Pál Pátzay’s Sports Rider in 1958 marks the end of a distinct period in the history of Budapest’s public equestrian statues. The new stylistic trends emerging in the late fifties and early sixties radically altered the conventions of presenting equestrian figures. The typical horse figure of modern art often lacks the features characteristic of the species.

Erected in Szárnyas utca, István Cseh’s Foal is one of several emphatically apolitical genre pieces decorating the

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