Gosztonyi Ferenc - Király Erzsébet - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2002-2004. 24/9 (MNG Budapest, 2005)
STUDIES - Shinji Tanaka: On Bertalan Székely's Japanese Woman, 1871
ON BERTALAN SZÉKELY' S JAPANESE WOMAN, 1871 BY SHINJI TANAKA Bertalan Székely's Japanese Woman (Fig. 1) is 'the most intriguing piece of Székely's oeuvre, a work surrounded with a number of hitherto unsolved riddles'.' The picture is quite unique in Székely's lifework. Apart from this, none of Székely's pictures represents a Japanese theme or features any japanizing motifs. The source and the date of the inspiration for the picture are both unknown. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the depth of Székely's engagement with the theme of the Japanese woman. The basis for our research was provided by the painting itself and by sections of Székely's sketchbooks with entries relating to Japan. ON THE DATING OF THE JAPANESE WOMAN For a long time, art historians assumed that the Japanese Woman dates from 1903, adding that the theme had been on Székely's mind since 1870. 3 This assumption was probably based on an assertion found in the catalogue of the Székely commemorative exhibition in 1911, which states that his Japanese Woman, commenced as early as 1870, was completed in 1903. 4 It is unclear where this assertion stems from. Perhaps it originated with Tivadar Lándor (1873-1954), a friend of Székely's and author of a monograph on the painter. 5 In 1911 Lándor recalled Ludwig (Lajos) Hevesi 's (1843-1910) reference to the picture called Japanese Woman 6 in an article in the June 1871 issue of Pester Lloyd. 1 According to the article, a new picture of Székely's called die Toilette einer Japanerin had been exhibited by the Hungarian Fine Art Association (OMKT) in the building of the Academy. The Association held periodic exhibitions in the Academy building. 8 Whether the Japanese Woman was really on display at the exhibition in 1871 remains an open question, for we have no extant copy of that year's catalogue. There is as little mention of the Japanese Woman in Gusztáv Keleti 's review of the OMKT exhibition in 1871, as in the Vasárnapi Újság (Sunday News) article on the Association. 9 We have to conclude that Hevesi's article is the only account of the Japanese Woman in the contemporary press. In the absence of a reproduction of the painting exhibited in 1871, it is impossible to establish with absolute certainty whether it was identical with the Japanese Woman preserved in the Hungarian National Gallery. Hevesi 's account, however, strongly suggests that it was. The painting on show in 1871 represented a life-size female figure. 10 The woman was sitting with legs crossed on a plaited straw mat in front of a disk-shaped Japanese mirror, grooming her long dark hair. Downward from the hips, she was covered with a colourful patterned cloth. Her nose was only slightly flattened, her cheek-bones not prominent. In other words, she was not Japanese looking. These features are identical with those of the picture in the Hungarian National Gallery. In 1871, Hevesi also mentioned the objects in Székely's painting: a mirror in a lacquered, gilded frame; a small box or cabinet; drapery with exotic patterns; a straw mat; etc. All of these objects appear in the picture housed in the Hungarian National Gallery. We can thus conclude that the composition of the Japanese Woman displayed in public in 1871 already included the elements observable in the surviving artwork. The fact that the theme can be dated back to as early as 1871 rules out the possibility of the painter's having been influenced by the craze for things Japanese emerging in Hungary around the turn of the century, or even by the consciously japanizing trend of Art Nouveau. In Western Europe, Japanese art gained currency in the wake of the World's Fairs in London (1862) and Paris (1867). From that time onward, there was a proliferation of antique dealers specializing in articles from Japan." In Hungary at that time, however, the trend apparently had not yet gained ground within the borders of the Habsburg Monarchy, though, there were already signs of interest in Japanese art. In Trieste, for instance, a shop called Gabinetto Cinese Wünsch was opened in 1843, where Japanese articles were also on sale. 12 Since 1863 the Czech Voita Náprstek (1826-1894) had been collecting Japanese artwork and folk objects obtained from Czech, German and Viennese art dealers. 13 Hungarian art dealer Sigfrid Komor set up shop in Japan under the name Messrs. Kun & Komor in the 1870s, operating in Yokohama, Kobe, Shanghai and Hong Kong, 14 while Géza Szabó conducted business in Beijing. Since 1854, the weekly Vasárnapi Újság had been printing articles on Japan, often with illustrations. In 1872
