Agria 42. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2006)

Matits Ferenc: Madarász Victor egy képének Heves megyei vonatkozásai

Ferenc Matits Victor Madarász's "Kuruc and Labanc": Lost and Found An important early work by the celebrated Hungarian artist Victor Madarász (1830-1917), now in the permanent collection of the Hungarian National gallery, went "missing" between 1856 and 1997, before being discovered in Subotica in the province of Vojvodina in present-day Serbia. Madarász studied at the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts from 1853 until 1855, then at the school of Ferdinand Waldmüller, before leaving for Paris in 1856, where he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and later at the private academy of Léon Cogniet. He lived in Paris for 14 years, frequently visiting the Paris Salon, where he was awarded the Gold Medal in 1861. Between 1848 and 1849 Madarász had participated in Hungary's struggle for freedom with Austria. His first major work, "Kuruc and Labanc", depicting an earlier period of Austro-Hungarian emnity, was sent from Vienna in 1856 for exhibition by the Pest Art Society. The historical painting shows the Kuruc - Hungarian freedom fighters confronted by the Labanc - sympathisers of the Habsburg régime. In a family tragically split between the two camps, the Labanc supporter assembles troops to break into a church where the kuruc seeks sanctuary with his wife and child. A priest attempts to keep the two sides apart. The 253 x 300 cm painting was bought by the Peat Art Society and won in a lottery by a society member, János Mintzér, a taylor from Gyöngyös in Heves County. It seems unlikely that Mintzér ever took the painting home; it was probably sold by the society. It then vanished from sight until I was shown photographs by the owner in Subotica matching the artist's own description of the work. It was subsequently acquired by Herend Porcelain Ltd, which then presented it to the HNG on loan. 668