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

article, although speaking about the events that took place in 1906, he quotes the said text. But even this is quoted unpunctually, leaving out the references to him being female: "Quelle truculence! C'est van Gogh, toutes proportions gardées. Un beau contralto avec des accentes rauques". Unfortunately, these mistaken quotes have been repeated in the literature. 48 Reproduced in: Kratochwill 2001, 46. 49 Rockenbauer, Zoltán, "Közép- és kelet-európai művészet Párizsból. École de Paris. Kiállítás a Zsidó Múzeumban" [Central and Eastern European Art from Paris. École de Pans. Exhibition in the Jewish Museum ], Európai utas, 2003, 4, 27. 50 Ervin Körmendi Frim: Kikötő (Harbour), Winter Auction, December, 1997, Magángyűjtők G., Galerie Blitz, Budapest, Item 204. 51 He presumably painted Bretagne Peasant in 1905; we know it only from an amateur photograph. 52 See Appendix. 53 Fülep, Lajos, "Salon d'Automne", Szerda, 31 October 1906, 219. 54 In August 1906, an exhibition was organized in Nagybánya's roadside studio, from which Czóbel and Ervin Körmendi Frim were absent, as they had already sent off their works to the Salon d'Automne in Paris. See: Anon., "A festőműteremben" [In the Studio], Nagybánya, 30 August 1906, 4. Reprinted in: Tímár 1996, 410. István Csók's letter to Lajos Fülep, Paris, 1907, in: Timár 1996, 410. 55 István Csók's letter to Lajos Fülep, Paris, 1907, in: Fülep 1990, 72-73. 56 "B. Béle Gobel [sic!] a des portraits d'enfants, de femmes nues, des paysages ou rien n'est équilibré, ou toutes les formes sont d'une construction fantaisiste et dont la couleur n'est qu'une hurlante diapure." Charles, op. cit. (Note 4) 57 Vauxcelles, op. cit. (Note 3) Vauxcelles made a mistake about Czóbel's nationality, when he described him as a Czechoslovakian artist in his book written in 1939 and first published in 1958: Louis Vauxcelles, Le Fauvisme, Éditions Olbia, (Regard sur l'art) 1999, 118. 58 "M. Czobel est un étranger inculte qui balbutie." Louis Vauxcelles, "Le Salon d'Automne", Gil Blas, 30 September 1907. Quoted by: Dagen 1994, 109. 59 Stein 1990, 18. 60 Béla Czóbel's letter to Dr. Béla Lázár, Paris, 13 February, 1907. MNG Archives, Inv. No.: 4574/5. "Dear Sir, earlier I enquired of a committee member in the matter of the exhibition, who said that we could get a couple of rooms, although he was not sure if this decision was not going to be overruled, i.e. they had been greatly disappointed in this year's Russian and Swedish exhibitions. There are no difficulties otherwise, and we may get a more positive answer in a couple of days. Yours faithfully, Czóbel." 61 "The paintings of Róbert Berény and Artúr Jakobovits are hung in the same room as his," wrote Béla Hein in his review of the exhibition: h. b. [Béla Hein], "A Salon des Indépendants", Pesti Hírlap, 21 April 1907, 37. (collected by Árpád Tímár) 62 Writing about the Fauves, Hestermann, a German painter, called Czobel one of the wildest. ("Der Wildesten einer war dagegen der Ungar Béla Czobel"). Friedrich AhlersHestermann, Pause vor dem dritten Akt, Hamburg, Verlag Gebr. Mann, 1949, 167. 63 Marco [László Márkus], "A tavaszról és egyebekről" [About Spring and Other Things], A Hét, 1907, 251 (collected by Árpád Tímár.) 64 Horváth, Béla, "Czóbel Béla Kernstok-arcképe" [Béla Czóbel's Portrait of Kernstok], Művészet, October 1962, 18. 65 Béla Horváth's interview with Béla Czóbel, op. cit. (Note 45) 66 Ibid. In this interview Czóbel also talked about two paintings that had been voted in for the 1907 Salon d'Automne (Garçon assis. Torse de Femme): "the boy on cardboard, the female torso on canvas, standing woman [...] The female torso was from the waist up." 67 "Czóbel travelled to Transdanubia to Kernstok's estate to paint," wrote György Bölöni to Itóka at the end of April, 1907. Bölöni 2005, 39. 68 Béla Horváth's interview with Béla Czóbel, op. cit. (Note 45) 69 In a letter dated May 4, Károly Ferenczy related to István Réti the news that, through Perlrott, János Thorma offered Czóbel a teaching post at Nagybánya. (In previous publications, the year was either not specified or was estimated to be around 1907 and 1908.) András-Bernáth 1997, 147. The name 'Jancsi', referring to János Thorma, was not explained in the publication of the text; also, Saturday was specified in the date of the original letter, which was also left out of the published text. From this information, the year can actually be identified, as May 4 was a Saturday in 1907. Therefore, it was in 1907 that Czóbel received the offer of a teaching post, which he turned down for some unknown reason. 70 Horváth, Béla, "Kernstok Károly ismeretlen Léda-rajza" [An Unknown Drawing of Léda by Károly Kernstok], Műgyűjtő, 1971, 2, 14-15. 71 The detail of the letter without the date in: Horváth, op. cit. (Note 64), 19. 72 The date, 1906, is also wrong in György Bölöni's review of Czóbel's exhibition, in manuscript, in: Bölöni 1967, 29-30. 73 Diehl, op. cit. (Note 47), 47, 69. 74 Berthe Weill's name is often spelled as 'Weil' even in the scholarly literature. 75 Anon., "Magyar festő kiállítása Párizsban" [A Hungarian Painter's Exhibit in Paris], Népszava, 25 February 1908, 7. (collected by Árpád Tímár) A few days before the vernissage of Czóbel's exhibition in Berthe Weill's gallery, one of his works was exhibited in Budapest. See: B-t, "A 'Műhely' lakásművészeti kiállítása" [Home Design Exhibition of 'Műhely'], Népszava, 4 March 1908, 5. 76 Weill 1933, 148. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Júlia Cserba and Krisztina Passuth for the information about the data in this hardly accessible literature. From Weill's book we learn that Czóbel took part in two group exhibitions in her gallery, in March, 1909 and in December, 1913, respectively. 77 Ibid. 78 Béla Horváth's interview with Béla Czóbel, op. cit. (Note 45) 79 Although she does not mention Jean-Pierre Moueix's letter to Czobel explicitly, in all probability Mimi Kratochwill made use of its content in coming to the conclusion that it was "the master of Chateau Libourne, Jean-Pierre Moneix, who purchased" Man with a Straw Hat in the Galerie Berthe Weill. Kratochwill 2001, 23. J. P. Moueix, whose name was misspelled in the monograph ("Moneix"), was the owner of Chateau Videlot in Libourne, rather than of Chateau Libourne; he was not yet born at the time of the painting's purchase, and his parents resided in Chateau Fonroque of St. Emilion, instead of Libourne. Actually, there are several Fauve paintings in the collection of J.P. Moueix, who died in 2003. See Alexis Bespaloff, Jean-Pierre Moueix dies, www.winemag.com. In the letter (I am grateful to Mimi Kratochwill for bringing it to my attention), Moueix did not claim

—could not have claimed

— that he had purchased the painting; all he said that it was sold in Galerie Weill sometime in 1906 or 1907. Naturally, the wrong date is given here, too. I would like to thank Mr R. S. Johnson for the information concerning the purchase of this painting from Mr Moueix. 80 Ibid. 81 György Szűcs thinks the latter assumption unlikely on the grounds that the man in the straw-hat is shown wearing working clothes that was different from the garment that was customary in Nagybánya at the time. I would like to take this opportunity to thank György Szűcs for his verbal communication. 82 Stanley R. Johnson, "Bela Czobel (1883-1976)", in: Homage to Bela Czobel. An extensive retrospective exhibit of paintings, watercolors, drawings, Chicago, R.S. Johnson International, 1981, Cat. 7-8. 83 Zsuzsa Gordon's interview, op cit. (Note 40) 84 Pariser Begegnungen 1904-1914; Kenneth E. Silver, "Jewish artists in Paris 1905-1945", in: 77ie Circle of Montparnasse. Jewish Artists in Paris 1905-1945, New York, The Jewish Museum, Universe Books, 1985, 13-14. 85 Ibid. 86 Hans Purrman is quoted in: Pariser Begegnungen 1904-1914. 87 Pariser Begegnungen 1904-1914, Cat. 15. Béla Czóbel: Leo Stein, charcoal, 28 x 23 cm, signed bottom left: Czobel. 88 The drawings in Czóbel's possession have been transferred to the Czóbel Museum of Szentendre. Relying on the catalogue Pariser Begegnungen, we have managed to find only one drawing (Fig. 19) exhibited in 1965 among the thousands of drawings. So far we have not been able to trace the charcoal drawing of Leo Stein, however. 89 Apparently, the young Hungarian painters living in Paris were on good terms primarily with Leo Stein, through whom they received invitation to the famous soirees on rue de Fleurus. See for example Mikola 1972, 44, 46-48. 90 According to sources published on the Internet, she exhibited in the Fauves' rooms as early as the 1906 exhibition of the Salon d'Automne (www.jacqueline-marval.com). An archive photograph is published on the painter's homepage, which shows Mme Marval in the company of Marquet, Valtat and others in the famous room: Camille Mauclair, "Le Salon d'Automne", Revue politique et littéraire, No. 21, October 1905. Regarding the 1906 Salon des Indépendants see: Vauxcelles, op. cit. (Note 3) Both articles are quoted in: Dagen 1994, 41 and 74. 91 Jaqueline Marval owned, for example, an unknown still-life by Czobel from 1906, which was shown at the retrospective exhibition at the Salon des Indépendants in 1926. (Trente ans d'Art Indépendant Rétrospective de 1884 á 1914. De la Société des artistes Indépendants, 1926, Cat. Béla Czóbel: 634. Nature Morte - 1906 - Appartient á Mme Marval.) 92 Burgess 1910, 400-414. (I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Kálmán Makláry, who called my attention to the reproductions in this article.) A year later The New York Times used Burgess' article and its reproductions: Anon., "The 'Cubists' Dominate Paris' Fall Salon", The New York Times, 8 October 1911. The reproduction of Female Portrait was also published in the newspaper. Although Hungarian researchers were informed about the newspaper clipping featuring the latter article, which was reproduced in the catalogue of Matisse's exhibition held in 1993 at the Centre George Pompidou (No. 98), we became conscious of Czóbel's unknown painting only when we discovered Gelett Burgess' article. 93 Edward F. Fry, "Cubism 1907-1908. An early eyewitness account", The Art Bulletin, 1966, 1, 70. 94 In Fry's opinion (op. cit. [Note 93]) the interviews could not have been conducted before the end of 1908. At the same time Jack Flam definitely dates them to the Spring of 1908: Primitivism and Twentieth-century Art. A Documentary History, eds.: Jack Flam and Miriam Deutch, University of California Press, Berkley, Los Angeles, London, 2003, 38. 95 Compare with the photograph from the middle of the 1910s, which shows her with their daughter, who was born in 1906. Reporduced in: Kratochwill 2001, 24. 96 Ibid, 153. 97 According to Mimi Kratochwill, "as in the past, so in the future

—right until 1914, year after year

—Czóbel took part in the two most important exhibitions in Paris, the spring show of the Salon des Indépendants and the autumn exhibition of the Salon d'Automne, as a resident of Cité Falguière." Kratochwill 2001, 24. However, this view does not seem to hold up in the evidence of the catalogues of the said exhibitions. After 1908, Czobel exhibited works at the Salon des Indépendants only once: in the spring of 1914 (under the name Zobel). In a letter to Béla Lázár, dated 7 April, 1912 (MNG Archives, Inv. No.: 4574/1947.2), Czóbel promised to take part in the 1912 Salon des Indépendants, but he failed to keep his promise. 98 The primary causes of this may have been financial: "This exhibition was more interesting, because there were fewer pictures and the venue and the lighting were better, but no Hungarians were among the exhibitors, because the exhibition fee was 25 francs (or 35 francs)", Itóka wrote to György Bölöni on May 10, 1909 in connection with the 1909 Salon des Indépendants. (Bölöni 2005, 73.) Compared to previous years' figures, this fee meant a three-fold increase. "Anyone who paid ten francs could show his or her works on four square metres of wall," he wrote about the period around 1906-1907 (Mikola 1972, 54). Another reason behind Czóbel's absence may have been that after this the Salons regularly refused his compositions (see also Note 101). 99 Puy, op. cit. (Note 4) 100 Prukner, Pál, "A kilencvenedik születésnap. Czóbel Béla festőművész köszöntése" [His Ninetieth Birthday. A Tribute to the Painter Béla Czóbel], Fejérmegyei Hirlap, 2 September 1973, no page numbers. 101 Sándor Ziffer's letter to Tibor Boromisza (probably written in 1911) is a further evidence of the deep artistic crisis that Czóbel went through at the time: "From what I have heard, it appears that Czóbel has put down the brush for good. He cannot find a way out of the cul-de-sac, in which he found himself. Right now he is with a Russian woman, living on his inheritance in Nice. For two years running before that, all his paintings had been refused by all the salons. In: András-Bernáth, 1997, 167. 102 Béla Czóbel's letter to Béla Lázár, MNG Archives, Inv. No.: 4574/1947.3.