Gyergyádesz László, ifj.: „Csavargó”. Mednyánszky László élete és művészete (Kecskemét, 2007)

Vázlatkönyvi rajz - Kisvárosi részlet szekerekkel (kát. 30.) Sketch-book drawing - A Small Town Detail with Carts (1914-1916, cat. 30)

of bis little son. She was crying and still she was looking at him, she could not leave him. The face of the dead body was white and yellow as wax, the hands as well, but the legs already had blue and green freckles, the signs of disintegration. ’

At this point we have got to Mednyánszky’s figurái paintings. Although we have to be aware that the majority of the contemporary Hungarian critics, possibly also reflecting the opinion of the bigger part of the open minded audience, wanted to see Mednyánszky only as a painter of landscapes. Possibly this was the reason why the visitors of the exhibitions could rather see his landscapes at the exhibitions in Hungary. In spite of this Mednyánszky never stopped painting figurái works, but this part of his lifework was more tightly connected to his hiding way of life. From his young age he was looking for connections with the ‘lower classes of people’ his homosexuality also influenced him in it. His early records from 1877-1881 which were found only a few years ago in Slovakia, also support this fact. Based on these rather sentimentally written texts we can learn much about the two young age lovers of Mednyánszky - one was János Dinda, drayman of Nagyőr and Blazsej Ladeczki, shepherd boy, who died at a young age. The role of the

latter is of special interest in Mednyánszky’s spiritual life, as he anticipates the role of the leader afterlife, what was attached only to Bálint Kurdi earlier. Mednyánszky '...liked talking about the Hungarian peasants and praised them highly. He often mentioned that he had been to several countries but he had never met anyone as primitive but still wise people as the Hungarian peasants.’ As we can learn it from his records - he had affinity towards social and national ideologies, Mednyánszky was attracted by the peasants and the doubtful existences of the big towns by other motivations. Aurél Bernáth writes about it like this in connection with a posthumous exhibition: T cannot feel the pity of the painter in the paintings either, although I know that he entered into the feelings of the prostrate of society. So I would oppose if Mednyánszky was romanticised as the <painter of the poor> after learning these works. I can only feel his fascination, how he is hunted: he wants to express this type of men’s world.’ Already in the peasant demonstrations of the 80s, especially in the portraits (e.g. Man‘s Face In Profile, see on p. 45) exceeds the limit of his ancestors like János Jankó and Mihály Szemlér, and the reason is his inner empathy together with a very accurate outer observation, his identification with the characters. For the visualisation of this the half-length portrait is especially suitable as it makes possible to look at closely and above all to concentrate on the spirits and character, as to the attitude it is free of any romanticism and simply gives him/herself. As his diary proves it, he always needed personal feelings and emotions to make portraits. The representative portraits - apart from the portraits of the officers of the world war - possibly du to this cannot be found among his lifework.

The most well-known from the portraits of young peasants and it can also be considered as a main work, is kept at the Kecskemét Gallery (The Portrait Of Bálint Kurdi, 1882-1885, see on p. 46). The painting is traditionally considered as the portrait of the boatman/carter coming from a peasant family in Vác, whose nickname by the painter was ‘Nyuli’. Mednyánszky met the greatest love of his life at the