Horváth János: A Rippl-Rónai Ödön gyűjtemény, 2002

"Uncle Ödön Socrates' splendid talent to disseminate his views on his way somewhere or sitting on market." (Aurél Bernáth) INTRODUCTION There are people that can hardly bear living in the shade of their popular, talented or even brilliant relatives. However Ödön Rónai was the very man to be born for this role. Me was serving his brother's art with enthusiasm. Me did the secretarial job, corresponded, copied if needed. He sent money, delicious home food and warm clothing to his far away brother in need, and he was his brother's first critique. There were jokes about how he had collected the remains of crayons, the half-used boards or how he had collected and saved accurately the napkins on which the Master scribbled his draft-like outlines with loose wrist movement. József and Ödön. Artist and his brother. They formed, influenced each other in a unique relationship, mutual need of loving brotherhood. (There are similar cases in the art history such as the brothers Vincent and Theo Van Gogh, whose lives were interwoven in a more tragic manner.) The main benefit for Ödön was the capability of how to respect and evaluate painting, although he was a painter himself, too. The consequence of this is the valuable collection as Aurél Bernáth wrote about which: "as a consequence of his personal charm," and "which was founded based on a competent and affectionate selection." The collection was called "the Uffizi in Kaposvár" by the collector with slight irony, containing pieces of art of well-known masters. The sudden growth of this collection made him move to a new home. There are rarities of great value beside the pieces of the brother in the collection, such as: the pieces of Sándor Qalimberti, who died young or pictures of the tragic Lajos Gulácsy. Me saved a great number of pictures from decay and vanishing, such the early paintings of fauve-style Béla Czóbel, Dezső Czigány, Ödön Márffy, Károly Kernstock, due to his good eyes and taste and tanks to his steadfast journeys all over the country for pictures due to this obsession of sophisticated taste, he could found a respectable collection from only a little money. Therefore Ödön Rippl-Rónai is not only known by our generation as the other greater one's model: in a spotless suit, elegant with a flower in his button hole, or dozing in an armchair, or later in fever and finally lying on his death-bed. But he is known as a keen art collector, generous donátor. "Sirs, You are together with me in a special and individually evaluated world. (...) Here, between the door and window there is a motionless but spirited guide of art history on view"- said Ödön Rónai in 1920, showing around his collection a few months before his death. "These are solemn moments for me asking you to sign my Last Will donating all these to Somogy County. In the name of the Hungarian art and the whole county, we thank you, Uncle Ödön, for your generous life. Zoltán RocHenbauer 7