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: Róbert Berény, the "Apprenti Fauve"

to be Robert Berény's early work, rather than Rezső Bálint's, as previously thought.

12 It was not so much the painting's colour scheme that gave away the influence of the Fauves; rather, it was the summary formation of the figures, deliberately distorted, as well as the emphasis on large, homogeneous colour patches and the easy and sketchy brushwork, which testified for it. Berény painted his emblematic work, the highlight of his career to that point, Self-portrait in Straw Hat,

13 during the exhibition. The half-nude entitled Woman with a Glass (Fig. 8, Cat. No. 5) was probably completed during the same year.

14 With its loud and fresh colour scheme and bold and dynamic brushwork, the small canvas meant a definite step towards Fauvism. The effect of French painters, and above else Matisse's influence, can be detected primarily in the painting's still-life composition. By that time Berény may have been able to see Matisse's works both at the Salons and at the exhibitions held by Berthe Weill and other art dealers. The modern and up-to-date qualities of Berény's work can only be explained by assuming that the painter saw Matisse's large exhibition held at Galerie Druet in the spring of 1906.

15 In all probability, the female figure in Berény's latter painting depicted the same model, who also sat for the painting which appears in a recently uncovered photograph (Fig. 6), showing the artist standing in front of the unusually large work.

16 By 1906, Berény had become a well-known figure of the Montparnasse. When his friend, the painter Dezső Orbán, arrived in Paris during the same year, it was Berény who acted as his guide, taking him to the better-known art dealers and introducing him to his fellow-artists of modern perspective. He also took Orbán to Gertrude Stein's Saturday night gatherings, where they made the acquaintance of Matisse and Picasso, among others.

17 Still in the same year he befriended the American Max Weber, who later studied in Matisse's school. 3. Robert Berény: The Roofs of Monaco, 1906. Cat. No. 6. In Berény's artistic development, the painting Nude Reclining on Sofa (1906, Fig. 7, Cat. No. 7) represents a new stage. With its large colour fields and emphasis on the complementary colours of blue and orange, the composition already anticipates the next year, when he would produce a large number of nudes. Before that, at the end of 1906, he found time to go down to the Côte d'Azur, where he painted several 4. Photo of György Bölöni, cca. 1906 Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum, Budapest 5. Róbert Berény: Children in the Garden, 1906 Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest