William Penn Life, 2010 (45. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2010-09-01 / 9. szám

World's Fair. The centerpiece of this grouping was a folk Madonna dressed in blue and pink with the Hungarian crest or "címer" in the upper right of the composition. Bertha's contribution to the pavilion display included the sculptures "Sleeping Shepherd," a copy of which is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and a peasant mother and child.

Bertha's gift for sculpture also comes across in her twodimensional works. Her painted figures, even those done in a black and grey ink wash, have a feeling of solidity without a great deal of contouring. Bertha did many such sketches of village men and women engaged in work and leisure activities and later created formal paintings from them. While many are undated, most seem to have been done in the mid- to late-1940s. It is unclear whether the sisters traveled back to Hungary in 1944-48 to capture these scenes or whether they created them from memory as a nostalgic reference to the Hungary they knew. There are also, as part of the collection, numerous nude figure studies from this period. This is something the sisters would have done continually, referring back to their classical training at the academies.

Both women were multi-talented. Bertha's work remained firmly in fine art, although she had interests in other areas. Elena described herself as a teacher, writer and lecturer in addition to being a painter. Elena also wrote music, both popular songs and ecclesiastical music. As a teacher, Elena inspired devoted admiration from some of her students. One such pupil, Edward Anthony Casaceli of Atlantic City, composed a poem to Elena which he wrote in his own hand on the back of one of her portraits which he owned for a time after her death. This romantic "Ode to Elena" reads:

You are like the night dear Spirit.

In your handsome dark glow of rich shadow a gold flesh You tell a story of sleeping lilies Of unopened orchids....

Purple, blue and violet-velvet,

(a gift from you) Inside, the eyes of jewels

Like a lovely string of lighted stars........

Pearls upon the necklace of the night's beautiful portrait Sweet in the face of seeing, sweet vision of Your Heavenly Soul.

The Hellebranth family had a special relationship with the American Hungarian Foundation long before their art became part of the museum collection. The Foundation's president, Prof. August J. Molnár, and his wife, Priscilla, were well-acquainted with Elena and Bertha and their sister-in-law Emilie. The Foundation has several pieces of correspondence from the sisters with copies of newspaper clippings telling of their latest exhibits and notes on their travels. Elena also attended some of the Foundation's social functions, including the George Washington Awards Dinner in the late 1960s.

Regrettably, I never had the opportunity to meet any of the family, except for Maria Gaal de Hellebranth, wife of Gabor T. de Hellebranth, who died in 1996. Gabor was a cousin of Elena and Bertha. Bertha painted portraits of Gabor's grandparents, Gabriella and Gyula de Hellebranth, in 1925. Maria was kind enough to donate the paintings to the American Hungarian Foundation in 2003.

While I never met the sisters, I feel a distinct connection with them. I visited their home on the ocean in Ventnor to select the pieces of art that would ultimately come to the Foundation. Even years after their death, their pres-LEFT: Untitled tempera painting by Bertha, circa 1940s, showing a group of folk figures with a village in the background. (Photo by Jack Abraham)

16 0 September 2010 0 William Penn Life