Barki Gergely et al.: Czóbel. A French Hungarian painter - ArtMill publications 5. (Szentendre, 2014)
László Jurecskó: Béla Czóbel in Nagybánya
3. Béla Czóbel: Self-portrait, 1902. Szentendre, Ferenczy Museum What was lost and what was gained with Hollósy’s departure from Nagybánya? On the one hand, they lost a large number of foreign students, and they lost an unbelievably powerful leader with vast teaching experience and connections on many levels. Most importantly, they lost the opportunity to display works in Budapest, which was out of the question in the Free School’s time. On the other hand, they had freedom of choice, a completely voluntary principle and Hollósy’s legacy, which continued to attract artists to the city with its exceptional features and natural environment. The latter considerations may have prompted the young Czóbel’s decision as well. Without even taking advantage of a free train ticket, he went to Nagybánya [today Baia Mare, Romania] to seek corrections by Hollósy’s former teaching colleague Béla Grünwald, who alone among the instructors possessed a smattering of experience and espoused liberal principles.3 We do not have much valuable information about the painter’s early life. We do not know how he could study drawing (or from whom) during his school years. His family was upwardly mobile, and we can identify several artists in his extended family. His father, who regularly went to exhibitions, supported his son’s ambitions.4 He made a single stipulation: his son could only begin such studies after successfully completing secondary school. Nearly seventy years later, the painter recalled these events: “I cannot truly fulfil your request to think back to my time as a young beginner and to Nagybánya - where, after graduation, I went with a trembling heart. I went into the unknown. We worked in an open and a closed building furnished with wooden desks. A model sat. We even got nude models. To write it all - our internal and external lives - would take a long time.” In fact, he does not provide much more information about his first year in Nagybánya. Indeed, it is still undetermined whether he painted his Self-portrait with the palette (dated to that time) at the colony or in Munich (Plate 3). The work’s bravura drawing technique - the hint of a highlight on the front edge of the palette, indicating its contour as well - clearly demonstrates that, thanks in part to Gmnwald’s corrections, Czóbel had reached a stage where he could realize his intended aims for a painting with a sure hand. We can find the influence of Rembrandt in the picture’s dark base tone; however, the pink and green colour patches and light about the face already suggest that he was already making use of lessons learned in Nagybánya. He developed his skills further over two semesters in Munich, 1902-1903, which the sketch he prepared there shows (Plate 1). Instead of the confidently depicted head, the artist emphasizes the hands, which he further models with a layer of white. Yet, this technique, which aims for complete anatomical faithfulness, is not completely successful. Neither were the hands in the aforementioned self-portrait, from which we can draw conclusions regarding his later bulky portraits with unfinished and over-proportioned hands. We have no information as to whether he formed any relationship with Hollósy in Munich. The academy’s two professors failed to leave any meaningful traces in his painting.6 In the spring of 1903, he travelled to Nagybánya for the second time. The local paper announced his coming beforehand, mentioning him as a student arriving from Munich.7 Czóbel had no reason at all to change masters, since Grünwald had achieved great success with his large-scale 3 “The school is full. Grünwald made a contract with Hollósy, and it is the latter’s intention to run a small Julian Academy in Munich, if possible. Grünwald only corrects the evening nudes - luckily - of course, compared to the old man, there are only apprentices to a teaching career so far [...] but he does a lot of good. He’s a practical soul, which the school sorely needs [...].” Oszkár Glatz in a letter to István Réti, Munich, December 1895. András-Bernáth, p 16. 4 My thanks to Mimi Kratochwill for sharing with me information about the period gleaned from her conversations with the artist. 5 Béla Czóbel’s letter to Jenő Murádin, Budapest 1971. My thanks to the recipient for bringing this letter to my attention, giving me a copy and allowing its publication. 6 In Munich, he worked under the guidance of Wilhelm von Diez and Johann Caspar Herterich. 7 [n.a.]: “A festőiskola [The Painting School]”, Nagybánya, 30 April 1903, 1:12, p 4. A Nagybányai I, p 312. 14 CZÓBEL, A FRENCH HUNGARIAN PAINTER
