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 - SOPHIE BARTHÉLÉMY: Pan! Dans l'oeil...The Paris Salons' Reception of the Hungarian Fauves in the Mirror of Contemporary French Critiques, 1904-1914

Catalogue of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1907 József Rippl-Rónai: Hungarian Village Teacher with his Family, 1907 Location unknown Rippl-Rónai earned recognition fairly soon after his arrival in France: first at the Artistes Français in 1889, and then at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts two years later. But, according to the evidence of contemporary newspaper articles, official recognition came to him after his first individual exhibition, which was held inside the Embassy of the AustroHungarian Monarchy in 1882, in Palace Galliera.

8 Even more unequivocal was the success he scored with his painting shown at Salon du Champ-de-Mars in 1894, when the Paris critics received his composition Grand-Mère with great enthusiasm. Gauguin, whom he met in 1894, along with Maurice Denis and the Revue Blanche's director Thadée Natanson, both of whom held his art in high esteem, all urged RipplRónai to join the group Nabis. After this, the various prizes and medals came in quick succession: he was elected artiste associé (associate artist) by the Salon du Champ-de-Mars in 1895, and then was elevated to sociétaire (full member) four years later; and he received two silver medals at the World's Fair of 1900: one in the category of engravings and another one in wall tapestry. He not only enjoyed the support of both the period's best-known galleries (Bing, Durand-Ruel, Bernheim-Jeune) and the circle of Nabis, but he also won the sympathy of the critics. Regardless of all that, he decided to move back to Hungary in 1902, where his reception, especially initially, was decidedly fainter,

9 Three years had to pass before he decided to send further works to the Salon of Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, of which he remained a loyal guest all along.

10 Last time he sent works to the Salon was in 1907, when he exhibited two canvases, the subject-matters of which testified for his twofold bonding: one to his native country, Hungary, and the other to his adopted country, France: Une famille de Provence en Hongrie (maître d'école et sa famille [No. 1015 in the catalogue of the Salon]) and Aristide Maillol chez lui (1016).

11 At that time, these works generated no response whatsoever, and the press made no mention of them. Also interesting is his decision never to take part in the exhibitions either of the Salon des Indépendants, where his friends, the Symbolists, were among the regular contributors or of the new Salon d'Automne, which was organized one year after he had left Paris. Later on Rippl-Rónai returned to France on several occasions, but mostly for family reasons.

12 István Csók: A Painter Recognized by Everyone in the Salon Following in the footsteps of Rippl-Rónai, Csók arrived in Paris after studying in Budapest and Munich. Just as his compatriots, he enrolled in Academy Julian to attend the courses given by Bouguereau and Robert-Fleury.

13 After working at the Nagybánya artists' colony for a period of time, he returned to Paris in 1902, where he eventually settled down with his family, although he regularly spent the summers in Hungary. He kept up his relations back home and between 1920 and 1932 he returned to Hungary to take up a teaching post. In France, he initially fell under the influence of the Naturalist painters DagnanBouveret and Bastien-Lapage, before becoming interested in the aestheticism of the Nabis, Vuillard and Bonnard. The Hungarian painter very quickly managed to carve out a successful career for himself in the Paris art scene. Between 1904 and 1914 he regularly took part in the exhibitions held by the Salon des Artistes Français and the Salon d'Automne, becoming one of the few foreign members of the organization in 1910. Similarly to Rippl-Rónai, Csók continued to maintain close relations with his friends in Hungary and also with Hungarian folk tradition, something he faithfully demonstrated to the Salon's viewers in numerous compositions of Hungarian themes. Although they never discussed his art at great length, French critics gave him a fairly favourable reception. In the April 30 1906 issue of Le Figaro,

u Arsène Alexandre laconically mentioned that he had seen "un nu assez souplement peint de M. Csok" in Room XII of the Salon des Artistes Français. In the same room, rated by Alexandre as "parmi les plus favorisées" at the Salon, Csók's composition entitled Thamar

15 (442) was accompanied by one of Doigneau's paintings of Breton subjects and some of Decamps' interiors. Two years later he exhibited a canvas entitled Nirvana (453), which had no separate mention in the critiques. Still in the same year he returned to Salon d'Automne with a vengeance: three of his compositions

16 were shown at the exhibition, which was marked by a strong Hungarian presence (Galimberti, Kernstok, Körmendi Frim, Kunffy, Márffy and Perlrott Csaba). However, the critics' reaction to Csók's work still remained rather restrained, compared to the generous attention given to the compositions of Matisse and the rest of the Fauves. The first laudatory comment, brief as it was, came to Csók's way in 1909, when a critic placed his "savoureuses études hongroises" among the Salon d'Automne's best canvases, in the company of such compositions as the "paysages délicieusement printaniers de Lebasque," the "subtiles et chantantes marines du Canadien Morrice," "la charmante Femme en jaune de Manguin," and "la lumineuse étude du Pont-SaintMichel de Marquet."

17 On the same token, the journalist resented the István Csók in his studio. A Gyűjtő, 1912