Horváth Attila – Orosz László szerk.: Cumania 6. Historia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1979)

Telepy K.: Iványi Grünwald Béla korai munkássága, valamint a Kecskemétre költözés okai és előzményei

KATALIN TELEPY THE EARLY LIFE-WORK OF BÉLA IVÁNYI GRÜNWALD AND THE MOTIVES AND ANTECENDENTS OF HIS MOVE TO KECSKEMÉT Béla Iványi Grünwald was one of the most important artists of the 20th century period of the Hungarian painting. Like many other young Hungarian painters, he also studied in Munich, and when his fellow countryman, Simon Hollósy, the excellent painterpedagogue, and his free school came from Munich to Hungary in 1896 in order to establish a painting school along with his friend István Réthy, János Thorma and Károly Ferenczy in Nagybánya, IványiGrünwald also joined them. At the establishing of the painting school that gave so many lessons later, the aim was the pictorical study of the free natureLater, several important painter colonies were founded in Hungary, however, that of Nagybánya remained the most important one. A lot of painters appeared there every summer with the aim of further development and getting new impulses through the corrections of the founding masters. As a teacher in the painting school, Iványi-Grünwald spent fourteen years in Nagybánya, and during this time he also developed his own art that was congenial with that of his fellow painters, however, it showed individual traits. It grew out of the realism of Munich and was transformed by experimenting the new methods of viewing the nature. The fourteen years spent there closed an epoch rich in results and lessons with its sunshiny, bright, plain-air landscapes built on coloured spot effects and family pictures of warm intimity depicted in intérieurs. This period of his life has been acknowledged as a very important one and the summary of its results was essential from that point of view too that he had created a series of excellent monuments of the Hungarian painting of the century's turn and he had set out on his way to the change of his style and the practice of modern-minded painting he folloved in the painter colony of Kecskemét after 1910. When he along with his fellow painters left for Nagybánya in the summer of 1896, he had already had considerable results. The public already knew his works, his creations which had won prizes. God's sword I, Ave Maria, Shepheard and peasant woman, Anarchists cast lots, The angel announces Jesus's birth to the shepheards and the Return of Béla IV after the Mongol invasion, a big historical work ordered by the government on the occasion of the celebration of the millennium of Hungary's existence, won recognition to him. These works partially still show the influence of the greyish colour range of Bastien-Lepage or show the artist experimenting with the problems of the artificial light. He finds himself in Nagybánya. The landscape offering particularly beautiful painterly experiences suggests newer painterly solutions. Only after a certain time and after experiments he seems virtually liberated and paints a whole series of works which have been honored relics of that period until today. Such ones are the In the valley (1901), of which several variations were made by him, and the Among peaks (1901). Both achieved a general success and were bought by the State. Both compositions are harmonious, ripe to perfection. They reflect the full understanding of the lessons about colour, atmosphere and sunshine painting studied by him through several years. After an organic development he reached that kind of pictorial presentation which was the most suitable for him. The nature led him from the naturalism through the influences of Bastien-Lepage to his style that transformed the impressionism. The protagonist of the Watering (1902) is the hillside bathing in the sparkling sunshine. The peasant boy sitting on the horse almost naturally belongs to the landscape. The strong light and shade contrasts suggest the intensity of the hot summer day. The insight 273