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

AT HOME AND ABROAD - KRISZTINA PASSUTH: Wild Beasts of Hungary Meet Fauves in France

numerous ateliers that provided working opportunities for the young artists and in which the nude models became an integral part of their surroundings. Maurice Marinot, a painter from Troyes who was then studying at the Julian Academy, depicted his studio in 1904 (Etude d'atelier, Cat. No. 301). Composed of large planes, the painting offers a low-angle view of the studio, where the nude is shown with her back to us, and two small dark figures can be seen in the background. Although this was still not a full-fledged Fauve picture, it already exhibited some of the marks of the future movement. The painting demonstrates that the visually new element had not evolved from the landscape, but from the female figure, or more precisely, from the relationship between the model and its surroundings; and the intimacy of the atelier as an environment offered. We could, of course, question the presence of intimacy, especially in the case of the earlier pictures. If, for example, we were to take one of the earliest atelier-paintings by the Fauves, the one painted presumably in 1893 by Matisse,

80 then we would see that the setting, Gustave Moreau's studio, would radiate an almost haunting atmosphere by its darkness and depressed, grey hues

—even despite the presence of the accentuated female nude in the centre. A few years later, L'Atelier sous le toits (1903)

81 still showed a huge, almost empty space in strong foreshortening. The sombreness of its brownish-greyish colours is somewhat eased only by the window opened to a landscape. The painting was a modest forerunner of the famous and characteristic windows of Matisse, which are so well known from his Collioure interiors. By comparing the briefly discussed atelier pictures with the compositions of Matisse, Marquet and Manguin, we can learn something about the themes and the artistic solutions that gave birth to the Fauve compositions. One of the most beautiful examples is Marquet's canvas depicting a studio, mentioned earlier (Cat. No. 294). Just like in Matisse's painting of Gustave Moreau's studio, here, too, a small figure, in this case Matisse himself, is shown stooping in the background. Dressed in black and wearing a hat, his dark form gives a sense of balance to the almost luminous figure of the female model in the foreground. The setting that surrounds the model is almost Post-Impressionistic: the gaudiness of the randomly scattered red, white and bluish spots envelops the woman's body as if it was a dress worn by her. The style of the picture is half way between PostImpressionism and Fauvism. On the other hand, when Matisse portrayed Marquet, he created from the same shady studio a location vivid with colours, in which the figure of Marquet is only lightly indicated, while the almost transparent, pink body of the model takes central stage. Even as late as 1911, when the hectic blossoming of Fauvism had been over, such paintings as Jean Puy's Le peintre et son modèle (Cat. No. 304) were born. Charles Camoin's picture, La Fille endormie (La Salimbanque au repos, Cat. No. 286) showing a young woman in a clearly provoking posture, is an exception; her starkly diagonal posture even enhances the effect. Her setting is not a gloomy, greyish studio, but a cozy room; she is shown reclining on the sofa and her nakedness is further emphasized by her striped Tibor Boromisza: Bathers, 1909. Cat. No. 83.