Kunffy Lajos: Visszaemlékezéseim, 2006

Lajos and Ella de Kunffy were part of an artistic and intellectual society in an enlightened age when class distinction gradually began to matter less and discerning personal value, crediting talent and ambition mattered more. Early in the twentieth century when socialist ideals were sometimes given voice by educated and intelligent ideological enthusiasts, the de Kunffys found themselves befriended by some of them. Not because of their „causes", but because of their wit, intelligence, education and novel partisanship attracted the de Kunffys. Among such friends was Oszkár Jaszi, who wrote several letters to Lajos and Ella. Some of these letters are published in „Válogatott Levelei" (Selected Letters), a book that once had great socio-political significance. There was some gossip that Ella had an affair with Jaszi. As the marriage of Lajos and Ella was always solid, founded in deep love and friendship, such affairs of the heart were generously overlooked by both parties. In fact, the friendships remained untarnished by such „excursions of romance." In fact, Lajos painted his wife at the piano with either Jaszi or the great pianist Emil Sauer standing behind her, watching, greatly absorbed. Both men were rumored to have been favored by Ella's attentions. (The painting is at the Rippl-Ronay Museum in Kaposvár.) Emil Sauer, whether or not ha had an „affaire de coeur" with Ella, was a superb concert pianist. Their friendship spanned the years from 1900 to 1939. The daughter of this great pianist was Eva Sauer, who taught piano to the only son of Lajos and Ella, Zoltán (1902-1989). Of course it was rumored that Lajos admired Eva. Zoltán was known to family friends as Zitan and that is the only name I associate with him. Another great pianist of the early twentietch century was Zdenka Ticharics and she was rumored to have had an „affaire de coeur" with Lajos. At that time, discreet love affairs that were mutually acceptable to both spouses were also well accepted by „society", and in artistic or intellectual circles were highly „affordable". The age-old traditions of „dynastic marriages", practiced by all social classes, were contracted based on social, family, financial, and personal considerations and compatibilities, leaving all parties with a tolerance for the occasional passion-driven affair. Lajos and Ella were good friends of Count Mihály Karolyi and his beautiful wife, the Countess Katinka Andrassy whom he married in 1918. The count became the first president of the newly proclaimed Hungarian Republic in 1918. He was overthrown by a Communist „putsch" and fled to the safety of Paris from both the Communist Terror and from Miklós Horthy's royalist restoration regime that followed it. Lajos managed to smuggle some very valuable paintings from the count's Budapest palace to him in Paris through Ella's brother-in-law, Nogrady (the husband of Lili Tiller). These paintings were sold helped sustain the Karolyi family during their exile in Paris. A few years later, however, Horthy declared amnesty to 265