Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 20. (Budapest, 2001)

Hilda HORVÁTH: Walter Crane's Wallpaper in the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts

Hungarian Minister of Religion and Public Education, and dated 16 November 1900.

7 These were mainly sketches made for books. Of these sketches four can be identified, their exhibition catalogue numbers and prices being visible on their reverse sides. They are as follows: an inner cover for The Little Pig's Picture Book (1869-C.1870),

8 an inner cover for The Fairy Ship (c.1870),

9 an illustration for the Grimm brothers' The Sleeping Beauty (188082),

10 and the illustration "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity' for the Book of Christmas Verse (1880s).

11 These drawings provide a cross-section of Crane's book illustration art — from the graceful work of art showing Japanese influence to the epic mode of execution, emphasizing the beauty of line drawing, but at the same time presenting detail. Trace of William Morris can be detected in Crane's works, as well as the influence of the Kelmscott Press, which designed and produced books possessing a unitary effect, and which, like Crane himself, regarded the book as a work of art that was unitary and total. In his writings, he proclaimed the power and the expressive force of the line. Some of the material shown in the exhibition was purchased by private collectors, with the well-known art collector and former director of the Museum György Rath acquiring one of Crane's works

12

, a glazed ceramic dish.

13 A number of art works with red, blue and yellow metallic glazes featured in the Budapest exhibition.

14 Together with a number of different wallpapers, Crane's "Peacock" frieze,

15 which generally accompanied his "Peacock Garden" wallpaper, could be seen, and bought, at the 1900 Budapest exhibition. But in this case the "Peacock Garden" work did not feature; instead of it, under no. 232 in the catalogue, was the "Peacock and Fig Tree" wallpaper, which was purchased by the Museum of Applied Arts.

16 Along with some other works the items bought were taken to Vienna to be put on show. But before this happened, a few were exhibited in the Transylvanian city of Kolozsvár, although of the Crane works that have passed into the possession of the Museum, only the wallpaper was taken there.

17 From the above we can conclude that the piece of wallpaper hanging in the corridor of the Museum came into the possession of the institution not from the exhibition material, and, possibly, not at this time. At the same time it should be noted that "Peacock Garden" was an older piece in Crane's oeuvre, having been completed as early as 1889,

18 winning a Gold Medal at the Paris World Exhibition of that year.

19 This wallpaper was distributed by the firm Jeffrey & Co.

20 Earlier, in an exhibition put on in the Budapest Palace of Exhibitions by the National Hungarian Fine Arts Society, a number of Crane works entitled "Peacock Garden" had been on sale.

21 A few works by Crane were shown at the "Modem Art" exhibition held in 1898 - all of them wallpapers belonging to the Copenhagen Museum of Applied Arts. Among others. Crane's "The Peacock Garden" also featured, with a note saying that the frieze belonged to the wallpaper covering the wall.

22 It is possible that this wallpaper was commissioned from the artist just after this exhibition. It was largely owing to Radisics that one of the large rooms in the Museum was papered with wallpaper by Crane. Among old negatives in the Museum's Archives the wallpaper frieze is recorded as being the property of Jenő Radisics.

23 Presumably it was ordered sometime during the period 1898-1900. Perhaps the idea for the project was raised at one of the tables in Budapest's Valéria coffee-house, where, at the time of the 1900 exhibition Crane and his family spent time with the "applied arts gentlemen": Director Radisics and the researcher and librarian Elemér Czakó. In any event, this little piece of wall, which survived the destruction wrought by the Second World War, bears witness to an age. It provides an example of the lasting and deep interest in British art in Hungary,

24 and to Hungary's participation in the cultural life of Europe, which is also indicated by the Museum's exhibition policy at this time. Masterful encouragement of the peacock theme in interior decoration - these birds were extraordinarily popular at the turn of the centu-