Gärtner Petra (szerk.): Csók István (1865 - 1961) festészete - Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. A. sorozat 45. (Székesfehérvár, 2013)
Resume
RESUME 443 > Irma Garay's Portrait, draft (cat. 56); Irmuska (Irma Garay's Portrait, cat. 57) 1896 The Erzsébet Báthory is on display in the Grand Hotel Royal from April independently from the official program of the Millennium Exhibition. (1.13) His work is purchased by the state for the National Gallery at the end of the year. He participates in the National Millennium Exhibition with the Lord's Supper and the Gathering Hay. The jury rewards him with the Millennium Grand Medal. He frequents Café Budapest opposite of the Opera House, where he is a member of the "Aquarium table society". Regular visitors are László Mednyánszky, István Réti, János Thorma, Béla Iványi-Grünwald, Károly Ferenczy, Géza Faragó, Béla Horthy and Andor Dobai Székely. 1897 He returns to Munich in the autumn. Since he has financial problems after his father's death, he starts painting for sale. In half a year he completes his miniature, meticulously created picture in the "Holland style", the Dolce farniente, which purposely caters to popular American tastes. (XVII.2) He participates in the exhibition of Glaspalast with this picture and the Erzsébet Báthory. His historical canvas wins the first class gold medal from the state. In the beginning of the summer he returns with his family to the mansion in Cece. He joins the painters in Nagybánya. He obtains a studio with the best exposure in the environment thanks to Lajos Bay.The building is an octagonal pavilion fully covered with rambler rose, standing along Saint John's Brook in the middle of the Hámori Gardens. He starts to paint his large canvas, the Melancholia, in the "Paradou". He rents a studio in Pest in Kmety Street where he finishes Melancholia, which he cuts to pieces a few days before the first introductory exhibition of the artists of Nagybánya thus he participates in the exhibition with two head-studies and the Dolce farniente, which he painted in Munich. > The Mill-meadow in Sáregres (cat. 87) 1898 In the spring he participates in the Paris Salon with a female portrait. Along with Mátyás Jantnyik and Andor Dudits he wins a prize for the plans of the wall pictures of the dining room in the Parliament (Budapest History Museum). He spends most of his time in Budapest, meeting with his fellow artists in Café Budapest and Café Dreschler. In the latter he is a member of the "Geranium-table," a group whose members are Jenő Kéméndy, Árpád Feszty and other artists from the Opera House. Csók first meets his future wife, Júlia Nagy, the daughter of the chief engineer in the Schlick factory, in Margaret Island. He prepares to travel to Nagybánya this summer as well but he and his family go to Marienbad instead. He is ready with the Penitent Magdalene (cat. 13) by autumn. He participates in the second exhibition of the Nagybánya artists in December. The model (named Elvira) of Magdalene, which is the only work exhibited here, is the same as the one of Melancholia, which was destroyed. The picture is attacked by the press due to the presence of unveiled eroticism of its biblical scene, but the painterly merits are not doubted by the critics. The Museum of Fine Arts purchases the Lord's Supper. > Venus (cat. 11 ) 1899 Károly Lyka praises his art in an article in the pages of Új Idők. He exhibits his two new compositions together with the artists of Nagybánya in the Art Gallery. The reception of the “Deliver us from Evil" (Triumphant Christ) is mingled in the circle of art critics; however, despite words of appreciation, he cuts it to pieces. Thanks to the fact that the Patrona Hungáriáé (Hungarian Madonna, cat. 12) is reproduced as a print by the Kálmán Könyves Art Publisher Pic. it becomes well-known nationwide. At the end of the year Bánk Bán is published in a deluxe edition by Pesti Napló with five reproductions of Csók's works in it. (cat. 126-127,1.16) 1900 The "impressionist transcript" of the Melancholia, The Awakening of Spring (cat. 36) is finished. After the failure of his deep inspirational symbolist compositions he returns to the theme of genre pictures that had brought previous success. He works in the Great Hungarian Plain (in Bugac) in the summer. He displays at the winter exhibition of the Company, along with other en plein air genre pictures, his new folk genre-pictures, the In the Sheepfold (In Cserény, 1.17). His change in direction is validated, as the Lord's Supper wins a first class gold medal at the Paris Exposition. 1901 At the end of the year he displays the Saviour (location unknown) in the National Salon, and the Salome (cat. 17) in the Art Gallery. 1902 The Sinful Woman (VII.4) is displayed at the spring exhibition of the Art Gallery but following its negative reception, the artist destroys it. Some of his charcoal drawings are published in Művészet, edited by Károly Lyka. He spends the summer in Sárköz, where he sketches several genre scenes. A new composition, painted in Őcsény, is displayed at the winter exhibition of the Art Gallery. The Bride ofőcsény is purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts. (cat. 44) The Baptism in Őcsény (cat. 43) is published as a print by the Kálmán Könyves Art Publisher Pic. Csók creates illustrations for the poems of József Gvadányi and Bálint Balassi in two volumes of the Classical Writers' Illustrated Library, published by Wodianer. He moves to Paris in the autumn. He makes the first draft of the Vampires.
