Horváth János: Rippl-Rónai állandó kiállítás Kaposvár, 1978

Josepf Rippl-Rónai was born in 1851 at Kaposvár. His father was teacher, later on head-master of the local elementary school. The name of his mother is Anne Pauline Knesevich. Having been first-born among his brothers he lived in brotherly love and understanding with his younger brothers Edmund, Louis and Alexander. They were the subjects of his pictures several times. He liked best his brother Edmund who was doing some paintings also himself and collecting passionately pieces of fine arts and folk art, china, furniture, having the secret desire a museum in Kaposvár to be established some day. The collection of this line of the museum was based on his gift. The father of Joseph Rippl-Rónai would have liked his son to choose the „secure living", the teacher career as profession of his life. Joseph, however, after leaving the fourth form of the grammar schoo'l worked as a practician in the local chemist's shop, and having had three years' practice here he was admitted to the arts département of the Budapest University as student of pharmacy aged 18 in 1879. As an undergraduate he painted the portrait based on photo of one of his favourite professors, showing his talent. In 1881 he graduated at the university as a pharmacist. In 1882 he got into the home of Edmund Zichy as private tutor, but it appeared more and more obviously that his only sphere of interest was painting because: „if there were not painting perhaps I should have escaped already ..." — he wrote to his parents in Kaposvár. At last he made up his mind to become a painter. For financial help he turned to his parents who supported their son's decision. Thus he got to Munich in 1884. His teacher was the noted Johann Caspar Herterich. In the beginning he drew nude figures of great size, in his leasure time he made copies of famed foreign artists' paintings in the abundant Munich galleries. Some of his drafts and etchings preserved from this period prove that he spent his time not in vain; he mastered the realistic way of painting excellently. After three years' stay in Munich he went to Paris, having guessed that Paris was the centre of modem art trends. Here he called on Michael Munkácsy who living here and being famous already at that time welcomed him heartily. For two years he worked with the master, and getting more and more under his influence he created his „Munkácsy-styled" pictures. Soon he took leave of his master feeling himself to be able to become only an epigon working and living so near the painter genius. In 1888 he made the acquaintance with his future wife Lazarine Boudrien. In 1889 his lot ied him to Point Aven where at that time a new kind of art was to come to life. In 1890 he succeeded in painting an original work already: the picture „Woman in White Spotted Dress". In the same year he made friends with James Pitcairn Knowles by whose means he got acquainted with Aristid Mail loi. He met Gaugin, Paul Sérusier who threw the artist youth of the whole Julien Academy into a fever with their bold colours. Sérusier set up the Group of Prophets (Group de Nabis) in 1888. RipplRónai became the member of this artist group. Here he made friends with Maurice Danis, Bonnard, Vuillard. In 1892 he moved to Neully together with Knowles and spent ten years there in stillness and work. His pictures from this period: Woman Lying in Bed and My Grandmother. Also Gaugin liked these paintings very much. At this time he painted the series of his exacting pictures as The Girl with the Cage, Old Woman with Violets, The Seine at Night. His wife Lazarine was weaving or embroidering tapestries based on his desings. It was G. Boderbach who wrote poems to his litographs Les Vierges with the same title. In 1895 he visited Hungary, and with a smaller exhibition - in the flat of MP Frank Sima - he introduced himself to the Budapest public. Here he got to know Count Theodore Andrássy who bought a picture from him. This also financially well-to-do man recognized the good artist in Rippl-Rónai and invited him to his castle in Tőketerebes to paint some portraits. At the same time he commissioned him with the designing of the dining-room in his Buda palace, but the count had not only furnitures designed by him, but also a fire-place, glass and china sets. The glass windows and tapestries of the pailace were made also according to desings of Rippl-Rónai. These works of his are the characteristic pieces of the secession period. In 1897 in Kaposvár he painted his picture Father and Mother after 40 Years Marriage. In the same year he arranged an exhibition in the Bing-gallerie in Paris. In 1899 at the invitation of Ma il loi he spent severail months in Banyuls in southern France, which period he praised as one of the best experiences in his life a'lso later on. Here he painted the portrait of Maillol. Nowadays this picture is to be seen in the Modern Museum in Paris. A decisive change in the life of Rippl-Rónai was brought by the turn of the century. In 1900 a great exhibition of his was arranged in the Hotel Royal, but the public was not able to appreciate his works, received them with adversion, and even the press meant to find out a decline in his art. In 1901 he made a tour in Belgium and visited