Barki Gergely et al.: Czóbel. A French Hungarian painter - ArtMill publications 5. (Szentendre, 2014)
Gergely Barki: Czóbel from Paris to Paris 1903-1925
105. Béla Czóbel: Still-life in front of the Window, 1917(?). Private collection 106. Béla Czóbel: Reading Woman, 1916. Switzerland, prof. Emeritus dr. Sándor Lazáry 78 Horváth 1961.1 thank Virág van Sterren for providing information on Roggen and Klomp. It is questionable whether Czóbel committed to paper the names of people who acquired pictures from him, or, in the case of painters, if he only mentioned them as his colleagues there. Alongside the names, he added: “My Dutch colleagues helped me sell over there. I had to live and I sold a lot.” 79 Jan Wils (1891-1972) was one of the founders of “De Stijl”. Czóbel made his acquaintance in Bergen. 80 In Virág van der Sterren’s opinion, it could be Czóbel’s Belgian colleague, fellow painter Valentijn van Uytvanck. I thank her for her kind input. Kállai also listed Paul Sanders (a journalist from Amsterdam who emigrated to America, and who eventually donated several pictures to Hungary at the end of the 1970s) and Jeanne Marianne Bosch-van-s’ Gravensmoer. Unfortunately, though, we do not now know which works were in the latter’s possession. Kállai also mentions the Regnault Collection in Laren, but according to our information (presented above), P. A. Regnault only acquired his works after Czóbel moved back to Paris. During an interview that Béla Horváth conducted with Czóbel, besides those listed, mention was also made of Graadt van Roggen, a deaf-mute painter and graphic artist, and a collector named Klomp who wrote several times on the Bergen School and on Boendermaker, as well as the painter Leo Gestel.78 He made special note that “[Jan] Wils (the architect of Amsterdam’s stadium) also bought from me in The Hague.”79 In the very same interview, there is another mysterious item: “I have another large picture in Amsterdam [by] Valentin — [sic!]”80 In the Bergen years, Czóbel was a persistent presence at exhibitions. In 1917, he displayed two paintings, Paysage (Landscape) and Les Rosiers (Roses), at the De Branding exhibition in Rotterdam.81 In terms of the latter title (unidentifiable today, with not known reproduction), it has emerged that it could be the same as a hidden picture discovered in the course of our latest research. It was also covered in a layer of red paint, on the back of a later painting that depicts the Notre Dame in Paris (Plate 201). The motif is plausible, and this is certainly the case of an unfinished work, since the repainting does not cover up a signature. In May 1918, at the Eleventh Exhibition of the Independent Artists (Onafhankelijken) in Amsterdam, he presented three works - among them, his painting Knitting Girl, on loan from Boendermaker. He participated in De Branding’s fourth exhibition, which gave “the most ultra-modern artists” such as Le Fauconnier,Toorop, Wichman and Jan Sluyters their first glimpse of opportunity in The Hague. At that show, Czóbel contributed the previously mentioned painting Fille au Beret Rouge (Girl in a Red Beret). 74 CZÓBEL, A FRENCH HUNGARIAN PAINTER
