Gosztonyi Ferenc - Király Erzsébet - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2002-2004. 24/9 (MNG Budapest, 2005)

NEW ACQUISITIONS - Károly Markó the elder: View of Rome, 1835 (Enikő Róka)

with the words: 'Copié par Stock daprés Weickart von [!] Ami Presb. 1785'. Thus it not only gives the name of the copier, Johann Martin Stock, but also that of the painter of the original, Johann Georg Weickert (1743/45-1799), and the year the picture was painted. It furthermore gives a clue to the original location of the prototype and its male counterpart. As Stock made his copy in Pozsony (Pressburg, Bratislava), there is a likelihood that the original oval paintings belonged to the furnishings of the Grassalkovich palace in Pozsony before being moved to Hédervár. The signature is also a rarity in that it informs of a professional and intellectual relationship, moreover, a friendship between Weickert, who mostly worked for Viennese aristocratic circles, and Stock, who was both artistically and intellectually drawn to middle-class attitudes (and who at this time lived in Pozsony), and of which we had no knowledge previously. Our pair of paintings has another piece of data connected with Pozsony. The August 1785 issue of Pressburger Zeitung published a short report in which the author relates his visit to Prince Grassalkovich's home in Pozsony. He mentions two works-in-progress, two portraits barely begun by Johann Baptist Lampi (1751-1830). He does not clearly state whom the portraits depict, nevertheless, I believe one of them is the portrait of Prince Anton Grassalkovich II, now in the possession of the Hungarian National Gallery. Based on stylistic similarities, the picture can be regarded as a Lampi, but it is also related to his portraiture of the middle of the 1780s (see the portrait of Joseph von Weinbrenner, c. 1785, Wien Museum, Vienna, inv. no.: 70.590, oil on copper plate 45.5x33 cm, signed.) Furthermore, the time of the journalist's visit to Pozsony, the summer of 1785, as implied by the publication date of the report, nearly coincides with the painting of the female counterpart, at least based on the date given on Stock's copy. The date at which the two oval paintings were made is, therefore, roughly the same, though they were painted not by the same hand, nor were they likely to have been ordered by the same person. I believe that the portrait of Princess Grassalkovich was commissioned by the Esterházy family, who employed Weickert for other tasks at this time (see the portrait of Maria Josepha Hermenegild Liechtenstein, the wife of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II, 1784, Eisenstadt Palace, Prince Esterházy Collection), while the portrait of Anton Grassalkovich was commissioned from Lampi by the prince himself. According to the Pressburger Zeitung, this latter work was joined by another portrait: either a depiction of the fourteen-year-old Anton Grassalkovich III as a third piece in the series, or the image of the princess listed in the 1825 issue of the Vienna Archiv jur Geschichte, Statistik, Literatur und Kunst as among the most important early works by Lampi, and of which we have no further information. The male branch of the Grassalkovich family expired in 1841, and their estate was divided among various families in accordance with the will of Anton III. The palace in Pozsony entered the possession of the Csáky family, while the archives that had been kept there were inherited by count Károly Viczay, the grandson of the princess's elder sister, and were thus moved to Hédervár. Given the provenance of the portraits of Anton Grassalkovich II and his wife, it seems likely that a portion of the Grassalkovich family portraits from the Pozsony palace shared a similar fate. KAROLY MARKO THE ELDER: VIEW OF ROME, 1835 BY ENIKŐ RÓKA Recently, a masterpiece of 19th-century art came to enrich the collection of the Hungarian National Gallery, the significance of which is all the more enhanced by the fact that few important works by major artists of the period turn up nowadays, and that the financial resources available to public collections are hardly enough to purchase them at auctions. This was why it was a particularly happy eventuality that the painter Mátyás Knausz presented View of Rome by Károly Marko the elder (1791-1860) the Gallery. Having been through registration, the work was immediately put on display in the permanent exhibition. The oeuvre of Károly Marko the elder is outstandingly significant in the history of 19th-century Hungarian art: he was the first Hungarian artist who had works of his acquired by the National Museum. As an internationally successful artist bringing glory to all the nation, the National Museum promoted his cult in his lifetime and, by opening a separate Marko Hall, in his death. He was born in Lőcse (now Levoca), in the Upper Flungary, and obtained a certificate in engineering in Pest. During his stay in his motherland, he painted several landscapes, and, finally, at the age of 27, he gave up engineering, and moved to Pest. Here he became acquainted with one of the greatest collectors and archaeologists of