Passuth Krisztina – Szücs György – Gosztonyi Ferenc szerk.: Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya 1904–1914 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2006/1)

HUNGARIAN FAUVES CASE STUDIES - GERGELY BARKI: The Evolution of Czóbel's Fauvism in the Mirror of his Early Portraits

the time when Picasso offered him a studio around 1907. "I turned down the offer. He was already a great artist then. And great artists tend to exert a powerful influence on the people around them."

100 Although his works were once again shown at the Hungarian exhibitions after 1908, his letters as well as other documents clearly show that his art had reached a dead-end.

101 "I have difficulties getting on with my work. I made many mistakes in the works I exhibited at the Salon, and I had to drop some of the results that I had obtained with great difficulty, and dropping results is just as hard work as achieving them, and definitely causes more bitterness, " he wrote to Béla Lázár some time around the spring of 1908, as confirmed by the evidence of the address and the further content of the letter.'

02 During the summer of the same year, he worked on Kernstok's estate, although he continued to be unhappy about the results. It was probably then that the anecdotal "iconoclasm" took place, in the course of which he and Kernstok buried the works they had completed during the summer under the dung piles of the vineyard. From a letter written by György Bölöni to his wife, Itóka, we learn that the situation changed very little by the autumn of next year: "Czóbel has been here for a few days: after his return from Paris in the middle of the summer, he was working at Volosca, and that is where he wants to go back. Having grown old and doubtful, he frequently loses himself in despair: what is to become of his painting? He brought some small drawings: high-quality and promising stuff that started off nicely. I don't think he is going to be crushed; I would be saddened if he got stuck and I could no longer have faith in his talent."

101 Still, Czóbel's name came to play an important part at the end of 1909. His works were shown at the first exhibition of the future group, Nyolcak, which was held in Könyves Kálmán Szalon, even though he took no further part in the activities of the group. His name continued to appear on the cover of the Nyolcak exhibitions, so as to signify the group's modernism. In tune with the short lifespan of French Fauvism, Czóbel's Fauvist period constituted a very brief episode within his oeuvre, yet its influence was felt for a long time in painting, both in his own pictures and in the works of his colleagues. Notes 1 "My father's uncle, Mihály Zobel [sic!], was an esteemed portrait painter in the Reform Era. His name is remembered in the world of artists," Czóbel recalled, adding that it was his ascendant's name, which eventually persuaded Hollósy to accept him at Nagybánya. Prukner, Pal, "Kilenc évtized. Látogatás Czóbel Béla szentendrei műtermében" [Nine Decades. A Visit to Béla Czóbel's Szentendre Studio], Pestmegyei Hírlap, 2 September, 1973, 8. 2 Tersánszky, J. Jenő, A félbolond [The Fool], Budapest, Magvető, 1957, 47. 3 In his review of the 1907 Salon des Indépendants, Louis Vauxcelles mentioned Czóbel among the Fauves: Louis Vauxcelles, "Le Salon des Indépendants", Gil Blas, 20 March 1907. First quoted by Oppler 1967, 18. 4 Michel Puy, "Les Fauves", La Phalange, 15 November 1907, reprinted in: Dagen 1994, 143-151. On the first occasion Michel Puy wrote Czóbel's name correctly, but on the second he spelled his name "Gobel". This suggests that he had read Étienne Charles' article ("Le Salon des artistes Indépendants", La Liberté, 22 March, 1907, quoted in: Paris 1999, 436) where Czóbel was referred to as "Béle Gobel". 5 Les Fauves 1904 á 1908, Paris, Galerie Bing, 15-30 April 1927, Cat. 6 The reproduction of Picasso's letter to Czóbel on 27 January, 1956 in: Kratochwill 2001, 51. 7 István Genthon mentioned that Czóbel exhibited together with the Fauves, but he failed to point out that the Fauves had a separate hall within the exhibition. Genthon 1961, 6. 8 Czóbel, Béla, "Önéletrajz levélben", in: Az új magyar művészet önarcképe [Autobiography in a Letter, in: Self-portrait of the New Hungarian Art], Budapest, Művészbolt, no date [1945], 15-16. 9 "In the Autumn of 1905 he already exhibited in the hall of the Fauves at the Salon d'Automne." Philipp Clarisse, "Czóbel Béla fiatalkori képei" [Béla Czóbel's Early Pictures], Bulletin de la Galerie Nationale Hongroise, Budapest, 1963, 4, 31. 10 Magyar művészet 1890-1919, ed.: Németh, Lajos, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1981, 313. 11 Kratochwill 2001, 18. 12 See also Krisztina Passuth's essay in this volume about the Paris Salons. 13 He painted A Street in Paris, which was discovered a few years ago, probably in the room that András Mikola had rented out on the first floor of Hotel du Bon Coin. (Fig. 2) In his memoirs Mikola tells that the square, onto which his windows looked, gave home to a market twice a week (Mikola 1972, 42). In one of Mikola's letters the exact address is given: 12 January, 1907, Hotel du Bon Coin, XIV. 2 bis. Rue Poinsot, MNG Archives, Inv. No.: 12825/1959. During an interview with Béla Horváth (manuscript in private collection), Czóbel said that A Street in Paris depicted rue Edgar Quinet. During our research in Paris we discovered that the square was flanked by rue Poinsot and Edgar Quinet, which was the same as the one in Czóbel's picture. On the back of one of Mikola's still-lifes a narrower view of the same square can be seen. (Fig. 5) Attila Rum discovered that in the background of Czóbel's Little Girl in Front of a Bed, a painting showing the same square is hung on the wall. (Fig. 3) In this latter painting, the location of which is unknown, the square is depicted on a market day. Presumably Czóbel painted Square at the same location, also during the market. (Fig. 6) 14 Zsuzsa Gordon's interview with Béla Czóbel, no date, MNG Archives, Inv. No.: 21633/1982. 15 Prukner, op. cit. (Note 1), 8. 16 "Instead of stillborn pictures, I see here the works of people who are searching for their individual direction. [...] I hear original, new voices, which scare off the shocked audience, who cannot make any comparison, as they lack any reminiscences that they may have seen in other paintings." Czóbel, Béla, "Levél a párisi őszi szalonról" [Letter about the Autumn Salon in Paris], Modern Művészet, November, 1905, no page number. 17 Oppler 1976, 38. 18 Oppler 1976, 81. 19 Czóbel, op. cit. (Note 16) 20 "Naturally, it gives me pleasure that you liked my article (even though I finished it off in a hurry), but the abridgment of the published version meant an abridgement of meaning, especially with regard to the passage about Valloton. [sic!] The printed version said: 'V.'s eschewal of knowledge is pretentious.' In V.'s case, everything is knowledge: there is not a single line, not a patch of colour, that is not positioned deliberately; on the contrary, the sharpness of his lines and colours is irritating, the same way that his strictness is irritating in the selection of what he transfers from nature into his compositions. His influence is as monumental as that of the sculptures and there are no pretensions, and there is no more seeking for that matter: it is pure synthesis that V [sic!]" Béla Czóbel's letter to dr. Béla Lázár from Paris on 29 November, 1905, MNG Archives, Inv. No.: 4574/4. 21 About the choice of titles rooted in Impressionism, see: Oppler 1976, 62. 22 Czóbel, Önéletrajz levélben, op. cit. (Note 8), 14. Czóbel mistakenly gave the date as 1904. 23 Béla Czóbel, Old Lady from Bruges, 1905, oil on canvas, 52,5 x 47 cm. Once owned by Mrs. Dr. Vilmos Heller, exhibited and reproduced in: Czóbel Béla Múzeum, Szentendre, 1975, Cat. 24 Barki, Gergely, "WANTED", Artmagazin, January-February 2005, 50. 25 Genthon, op. cit. (Note 7), 8. 26 Passuth 1967, 45; Magyar művészet 1890-1919, op. cit. (Note 10), 314, etc. 27 Réti 1994, 29. 28 Ibid. 29 We cannot accept the suggestion, whereby the painting of dubious provenience, entitled Rózsaszinruhás lányka (Girl Dressed in Pink) and held in the Petró Collection in Pécs, would have been shown at the 1906 exhibition of Salon des Indépendants. The catalogue of the Collection explicitly says that "It was shown at the 1906 exhibition of the FAVs" (sic!), in connection of which we do not care to make any comments. The reproduction and the above quote in: A pécsi Petró gyűjtemény, Válogatás [The Petró Collection at Pécs, Selection], Budapest, Szent István Társulat, Az Apostoli Szentszék Könyvkiadója, 2002, 109. 30 Genthon, op. cit. (Note 7), 6. 31 István Genthon believed that the work had been painted in 1906: Genthon, op. cit. (Note 7), 6; at the same time, Béla Horváth thought it was completed in 1905: Horváth, Béla, "Czóbel Béla Kernstok-arcképe" [Béla Czóbel's Portrait of Kernstok], Művészet, 18 October 1962, 18. 32 Attila Rum called my attention to the unknown reproduction; I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for this. 33 Anon., "Magyar művészek sikere Parisban" (The Success of Hungarian Artists in Paris], Jövendő, June 1906, 55. 34 Bölöni, György, "Külföldi kiállítások. I. A párisi Szalonok" [Exhibitions Abroad. I. Salons in Paris], Jövendő, June 1906, 25. 35 "He portrayed in India ink some of his artist friends with force and vigour." Lendvai, Károly, "Párisi levél" [Letter from Paris], Művészet, 1906, 5. 36 Anon., op. cit. (Note 33), 55. 37 "The idea of the still-life with china is very original. White wall, chinaware, cuttlery, all with interesting character. The study of the head is similarly interesting," Károly Lendvai wrote about the two paintings exhibited here: Catalogue de Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, XVIe exposition. Grand Palais, 15 avril - 30 juin, 1906: Czóbel: No. 316. Porcelaines, No. 317. Têfe d'homme. 38 Oppler 1976, 50 refers to Douglas Cooper's monograph: Georges Braque, München, Haus der Kunst, 1963, 30-31. 39 On Braque's decision to destroy his early works, see Oppler 1976, 50. About the paintings Czobel presumably made in the summer of 1908: "in the old days, when my friend Béla Czóbel visited me at Nyergesújfalu, we buried the work of an entire summer in the trenches under the grapevines." Kernstok, Károly, "Vallomás", in: Az Ernst-Múzeum kiállításai. Magyar-Mannheimer Gusztáv hagyatékának kiállítása, Kernstok Károly festményeinek és rajzainak gyűjteményes kiállítása. [Confession, in: The Exhibitions of the Ernst Museum, Gusztáv Magyar-Mannheimer's Bequest, Collective Exhibition of Károly Kernstok's Paintings and Drawings], Cat. 13 March - 3 April, 1938, 15. 40 "I have known Braquet [sic!] since 1906, when I went to Braque, he always received me kindly," Czóbel recalled it during an interview made by Zsuzsa Gordon, op. cit. (Note 14), 6. This is how Braque remembered: "Since 1906, when we exhibited together in the Fauves room of the Indépendants, you have followed your own path, which was not always the easiest." Letter from Braque to Czóbel in 1952, published in different translations, in: Genthon, op. cit. (Note 7), and Kratochwill 2001, 50. 41 See Note 40. 42 We must not forget that Czóbel may have seen the 1906 exhibition of Rippl-Rónai, who exerted enormous influence on the young artist already from the start. 43 Kratochwill 2001, 21. Philipp Clarisse put this more carefully: "It is very likely that his painting entitled Man Wearing a Straw Hat was at one of the exhibitions of the Salon d'Automne." Philipp Clarisse, op. cit. (Note 7), 9. 44 Exposition d'Art Hongrois Contemporain, Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, no date, [1949], 25 March - 24 April, Cat., 47. In his writing, which was unfortunately full of inaccurate statements, Dénes Pataky said about the same portrait that it had been shown at the 1906 Salon d'Automne. In: Pataky, Dénes, "Czóbel Béla", Művészet, 15 October 1962. The task of clearing the confusion that is caused by identical titles is further hindered by the fact that Czóbel exhibited an unidentified portrait already at the 1906 exhibition of the Salon des Indépendants, the title of which (Portrait d'un jeune homme) could even describe the work in question. By the same token, it is even possible that Czóbel exhibited the portrait on both occasions under different titles. 45 Béla Horváth's interview with Béla Czóbel on 24 September, 1961, manuscript in private collection. 46 We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mimi Kratochwill for the valuable information. 47 "Mme Bela Czobel: d'ordinaire, les dames peignent avec moins de truculence. Elle détonnerait á l'exposition des femmes peintres. C'est 'Mme Van Gogh' toutes proportions gardées. Un bon contralto, avec des accents rauques." Louis Vauxcelles, "Au Grand-Palais, Le Salon d'Automne", Gil Blas, 5 October 1906. In: Dagen 1994, 80. Gaston Diehl (Les Fauves, Nouvelles Éditions Françaises, Paris, 1971, 69) mentions the wrong date (1905) and notes that the sex of Czóbel was wrong in the critiques. Diehl does not mention Vauxcelles as the author of the