Horváth János: Kunffy Lajos - A somogytúri Kunffy Emlékmúzeum katalógusa (Kaposvár, 2005)

The bedroom of the artist The furniture can be seen here is a bearer of family and personal memories. On the paintings a selfportrait, the portraits of the wife, the only child, the parents and the home environment can be seen together with the journeys. Here we can commemorate his father, Adolf Kunffy, the last „garibaldist". He played an important part in the social rise of the family He could get a respectable estate by a successful renting - system, winning an aristocratic rank in 1912. He was the one who brought up his children well-educated, in valuable. European-spirit. His first born .son, Lajos first studied law, later on, was given all of his support as for his artistic ambition. „Al though my father graduated only from a commercial high school in Nagykanizsa, one of the best ones that time, but he was well read, cultured, with good taste. His early journey in Italy arose his artistic taste and interest. He subscribed for illustrated Italian papers. That was the time of the Indian excavations, and the relics were printed in these papers. We, children also could see them. I remember painting a carttrader's skinny horses in Gálosfa at my 19-20, and he really enjoyed this picture, that I could catch the characteristics of them. In spite of the fact that he was a businessman, he did not overvalue the material things. He strived to provide his sons with wealth but he could accept their own ambitions. He explained his tolerance with the general economic conditions, he would say that we should look back as well to see how many people live even poorer not complaining though. He gave everything to his children of careful middle-class education. " The room of the artist's wife Mrs Kunffy's taste is reflected in the female interior. She was to pick and furnish the home .She grew up and was educated in Budapest, she got on well with the society there, and she created a warm family and social atmosphere around his husband. She was a model of womanly and motherly beauty. She was a great pianist but she developed hearing complaints while having a child. Among their friends was Emil Sauer, a German pianist, a Liszt student, a concert pianist entertaining them in their Paris and Budapest homes, too. The painter wrote about his wife: ,yVe invited French artists to our receptions, enlarging our company. My wife spoke a good French, and the French appreciated this. She excelled in the society with her beauty, culture as for History and literature, and her piano play as well. She was the best student of Árpád Szendi, who wanted to make her a professional musician. TJtose times she was willing to play the piano in company. One occasion she played at a reception of the Gaston La Touche in Saint Cloud and the French were enthusiastic about her. Bartholomé, the famous sculptor, creator of the „Aux morts", the statues at the entrance of the Perle La Cheise, always greeted her like this: „Je n'oublierai jamais cette rapsodie de Liszt" I I'll never forget this Liszt rapsody / She was always asked to play at the Austro -Hungarian Embassy, but there she was unwilling to play as there were professional musicians around. Once, after midnight 74