Köpröczi Rózsa: A grafikus Szőnyi. Rajzok, vázlatok, tanulmányok (Pest Megyei Múzeumok Igazgatósága – Szőnyi István Alapítvány, Szentendre – Zebegény, 1996)

The studies on the position of hands, feet or gestures are almost of anatomic preciseness but they are far from naturalism as well as from the dryness of anatomy lessons. They excellently apply the possibilities offered by charcoal technique. Szőnyi often had to get over realism when he had to depict the wing of an angel or an elongated female figure hovering over the Danube, or transfigurated faces. Looking at these leaves we can witness the wonder when a drawing comes to life. It means on the one hand that it is similar to what it depicts, and on the other hand that the lines begin to move like the blood circulation of human body. If the observer is able to join this current, the network of lines having lain dead on white paper changes into a living organism. These drawings having come to life are individual works of art, though most of the sketches had been made without a purpose like this. However, a sketch can become detached from the painting it should serve. The charcoal studies made to the frescos of Győr belong to this kind of sketches.