Imre Györgyi szerk.: A modell, Női akt a 19. századi magyar művészetben (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2004/2)

Katalógus / Catalogue - VI. Akt a műteremben / The Female Nude in the Atelier - Boros Judit: Az aktfestés gyakorlata a Julian Akadémián / Nude Painting at the Académie Julian

École, at least in the eyes of young progressive artists, students of average talent and women. The institution perfectly suited young people dissatisfied with the conservative stance of official artist training

—like the Nabis

—because while it was offering the same (or better) opportunities to acquire technical skills (classes in anatomy, nude drawing, exercises in composition, help with essential technical issues of painting) as the Ecole des Beaux Arts did, it did not try to curb their personal visions. Practical instruction was given mostly by teachers who also taught at the École, but they were more liberal at the Julian, and corrected only those who specifically requested it. The École des Beaux Arts opened its doors to women only in 1897, and by that time the Julian had attained such prestige among the alternative institutions, that most female would-be artists had little doubt as to which was the better choice. Foreigners accounted for about half of all students at the Julian. At the Académie Julian too, instruction began with nude studies, drawing usually after a live model. This was followed by study painting, with the understanding that studies were strictly different from 'pictures'. Each studio had two models

—naked in the morning, clad in the afternoon, and naked again in the evening

— for the sake of quick motion sketches. The same model would be available to students for a week, and each student would keep the place they took on Monday, though old students and prize-winners had the privilege of choosing a place first. The instructors visited the studios once or twice a week to make corrections, and the model was probably posed by the 'massier'. What seems to have been the general practice was that almost all students had two instructors, either because two teachers would do corrections in a studio, or because each studio had its own instructor, as in the École, and students would attend at least two studios. Nudes had to be trompe l'oeil, the same way as in the École. Students drew with charcoal on Ingres paper, or painted studies in oil. To ensure the balance of the figure, plumb lines were used to divide the vision into four, while the pencil in the hand served to measure proportions. Since the rooms were usually crowded, it was impossible to draw or paint life-size figures. Male models in women's studios were never entirely naked, but posed in loincloths, as can be seen in Marie Bashkirtseff's painting of a studio at the Julian. Correction was done by the teacher selecting the best work in class and analysing it. The selected work was usually entered for the monthly concours, where prizes included modest sums and tuition fee waivers. Large classes also meant that students could not establish a more intimate relationship with their instructors, though teachers often invited the best for Sunday visits to their own ateliers. Students learned a great deal from one another. Thanks to this, most went on to remember the Julian as a school of a modern and liberal spirit, despite the rather traditional methodology. In the later 1880s Paul Sérusier was the massier of the studio on the Rue St Denis, where students included the later Nabis, and such future giants of Hungarian painting as Károly Ferenczy, István Csók and Béla Grünwald, though the two groups do not seem to have established connections. József Rippl-Rónai attended the Julian regularly for only two or three weeks, but he may well have returned from time to time to do some occasional drawing. In 1891, Henri Matisse had János Vaszary for a fellow student, who was later to acknowledge three of his teachers, Jean-Paul Laurens, Adolphe William Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury as his masters. Even after the studies in naturalism, nude painting remained part of the curriculum of the more advanced students, in their exercises in composition. Sándor Nagy reported on the composition contest announced by Jules Lefèbvre, whose subject

—The Nymphs Lay a Wreath on the Grave of Adonis

—did indeed require a knowledge of academic nude painting. The 1894 Bal des Quatr' Arts, the annual dance of the Académie, also featured live models, who, as István Réti reported, appeared as 'the apotheosis of the naked female beauty and body' in their 'birthday suits'. The same year Vaszary rejoined Réti and the others at the Julian, and this was when he painted, probably as parts of a larger series, the three nude studies we present here. Typically, Hungarian students started attending the Julian after studies in the Budapest School of Arts and then at the Bavarian Royal Academy of Arts, Munich. Most came between 1886 and 1910. While at the turn of the 1880s and 1890s most Hungarian students studied under W. A. Bouguereau, Tony RobertFleury, J.-P. Laurens and Jules Lefèbvre, the beginning of the 20th century saw almost all of the Hungarian 'fauves' (the future neo-impressionists) attend J.-P. Laurens's studio. It was from here they went on to Henry Matisse's academy, which opened in January 1908. CD n E <u £ < 331