Vörös Éva: Erdélyi Mór fotográfiái - A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum tárgykatalógusai 3. (Budapest, 2012)
1 *1 Mór Erdélyi was also a painter. This has no direct significance for our collection, but can be regarded as a further contribution to photographic history in the sense that in 1904 Director-general Ferenc Saárossy-Kapeller requested a quote from Erdélyi for a series of portraits depicting former ministers of agriculture. 52 Note that there exists a unique group of watercolours,53 made at the turn of the century; the so-called Mill Series depict mills in the capital city and some rural ones as well. Three letters throw a light on the international reputation of the museum, as a result of which Erdélyi was commissioned with making photographs of the museum’s building and its exhibitions. The first letter is by Dr Peter Braunow, university lecturer at St Petersburg,54 followed by the letter from the Argentinian ambassador P. H. Enrique Paatz in February 1910,55 as well as the communication from H. Bolton, curator at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery in July 1911.56 Following these dates, the correspondence between Mór Erdélyi and the museum was disrupted until December 1926, and then continued again until 1929. A series of memoranda testify of the sorry state of several exhibited photographs. Important additional data from 1927 suggest that a Dr Ihos, a member of the museum staff, examined almost 200 items of ‘regular photographs by Erdélyi’ with a view to create a separate photographic collection for the museum.57 In connection to the series of photos depicting labourers’ cottages János Mayer, Minister of Agriculture, requested in 1927 from the museum that photographs and explanatory text be acquired from Mór Erdélyi on the subject of agricultural and day labourers, later to be sent to the International Labour Office at Geneva, a section of the League of Nations.58 The minister authorised Erdélyi’s commission, which were later supplied with Hungarian and French explanations. The main condition of the selection was that photos should depict ‘agricultural labourers preferably in their homes, during their home chores and in their private lives, so that their position would be demonstrated from a primarily social point of view’.59 Conclusion As the catalogue was prepared, a full repertory of Mór Erdélyi’s photographs in the collection was also completed. In connection to that mention should be made of the physical condition of the photographs in question, as this presentation of the Erdélyi collection was prepared from a historical and retrospective point of view. As the photos under discussion are over 100 years old, their history also should include the damage they suffered, especially as not all of the surviving items are in a fine condition. The catalogue contains the detailed description of over 100 photographs by Mór Erdélyi, and roughly the same number had been digitally reproduced. The basis of selection was the agricultural connection. Mór Erdélyi’s photographs kept by the Original Photograph Collection of the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture support the widely-held notion that Erdélyi was fully justified in receiving the titles Imperial Austrian and Royal Hungarian Court Photographer as well as the Royal Purveyor to His Majesty the German Emperor and King of Prussia. His ouevre, his business activities, his wide-ranging vision and his work on an international scale had made him a world-class photographer of his age. 52 MMgM MD 806/1904. 53 Entered into the catalogue of the Art Collection in 1959. 54 MMgM MD 103/1908. 55 MMgM MD February 1910. ‘No. 47. Copy of a document addressed to the Director-general of the Royal Museum of Hungarian Agriculture’. 56 MMgM MD 366/1911. 'Letter by H. Bolton'. 57 MMgM MD 2 May 1927. 58 MMgM MD 776/1927. 59 Ibid. 20
