Őriné Nagy Cecília (szerk.): A népművészet a 19-20. század fordulójának művészetében és a gödöllői művésztelepen (Gödöllői Múzeumi Füzetek 8. Gödöllői Városi Múzeum, 2006)

Folk Art as Reflected in the Art at the Turn of the 19,h and 20th Centuries and in the Art Colony of Gödöllő. Abstracts in English / Angol nyelvű összefoglalók

Abstracts in English 209 Zsuzsa FARKAS art historian, Hungarian National Gallery THE TRADITION OF THE GENRE OF PEASANT LIFE IN HUNGARIAN PAINTING The genre of the Hungarian peasant life has been created in the middle of the 19

th century by entirely taking over the rules of the Vienna Academy. This genre of seemingly easy structure and presentation is likely to create empathy straight by its subject. One of the important subjects of the Vienna Biedermeier painting is the compassion picture used for representing the life of poor peasants. Miklós Barabás and his fellow artists were exhibiting works of art painted in this spirit in the expositions of the Art Association of Pest starting in 1840. The Viennese painter Waldmüller seceded from the academy and founded his own painters' school in the eighteen forties. The genre of the village-life has been transformed in his freer style; his influence was important and widespread. Ágost Canzi painted his peasant life genre entitled Grape Harvest near Vác in 1860. This work has met considerable success because of its interesting subject showing a festive village custom and its effectiveness to be explained by the manner of painting. The artist made long preparations for this picture; he studied the Calvinist population of the village Tahi making sketches throughout a whole summer. The composition of Mihály Munkácsy entitled Inviters to a Wedding Feast created in Munich in 1868 is a good example of a painting method, which consisted in making several set photographs and using these photographs afterwards for putting together the final composition. The real break-through in the development of the Hungarian peasant life genre painting was brought about by the work of Mihály Munkácsy prepared in 1870 bearing the title Death Cell. In this carefully planned scene, the characters' expressive gestures and facial expressions emanate "dramatic power". This work was liked also in the Salon of Paris. Its mode of representation will be softened and transformed in the artist's later works, but the followers will amply preserve its atmosphere in their cheap representations till the turn of the century. There was a Hungarian section among the teachers in the Munich painting academy formed by Gyula Benczúr, Sándor Liezenmayer and Sándor Wagner. Since their oeuvre hasn't been sufficiently analysed yet, the peasant life genre paintings created by them, the genesis and characteristic features of the development of these works is not evident for art history. Gyula Aggházy was the follower of the representation system initiated by Munkácsy. He has made excellent photographs but was unable to apply the results derived from the photos in his paintings. In order to easily attain public artistic success, he has painted jovial scenes dealing with the problem of lovers seeking and finding each other. This lengthy introduction was necessary because no study has yet been written