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

FROM PARIS TO NAGYBÁNYA - PARIS - GERGELY BARKI: From the Julian Academy to Matisse's Free School

W. German students of Matisse cca. 1909-1910 Photo: Will Howard 11. Matisse surrounded by his students and his Italian model Bevilaqua, 1909 Archive photograph 12. Per Krohg, one of Matisse's Norwegian students, with the plaster copy of an archaic Greek sculpture in the background, cca. 1908-1911. Archive photograph ing: "this group completely rejects material practices and expects everything to come from understanding and theories. They believe that talent or perception can completely make up for the clumsiness of the hand." Denis also placed Czóbel in this group, criticizing him for "paying little attention to nature and discarding Greco-Roman art."

23 Denis' misunderstanding may have been due to his assumption that the deliberate distortions and non-realistic representations in the drawing of Matisse and his followers merely resulted from their clumsiness and he probably had no idea that the training of artists at Matisse's school, which had opened its doors only a few months before the publication of the article, was hardly different from the traditional academic training. Until spring came, Matisse gave his students plaster copies of archaic and classic Greek sculptures

24 to copy, because drawing live nudes was only possible in warm weather.

25 A thorough and scholarly study of the Hungarian artists receiving tuition at Matisse Academy has not yet been carried out, and on this occasion we can only provide a brief summary of the existing information. From the dozen or so students who initially enrolled in the school immediately after it had been opened in January 1908,

28 the student population rapidly increased tenfold.

29 In addition to the large number of Scandinavian,

30 German

31 and American students,

32 and along with the two or three French pupils,

33 we know only of a small contingent of Hungarians who regularly took part in the training. Despite their small number, the Hungarian artists soon achieved notoriety through their eccentric behaviour. It is rather revealing that the Hungarians among Matisse's students are usually mentioned in foreign literature only in connection with the somewhat ignominious incidents

34 that Gertrude Stein recorded in her autobiography.

35 In a letter written in April 1908 to István Réti,

26 Géza Bornemisza revealed that on Matisse's encouragement he had taken to modelling clay statues. Although we have no proof that any of these sculptures have survived, the artist's interest in plasticity is evident in many of his compositions. Similarly to Tihanyi (Fig. 1 5, Cat. No. 247), he had taken up copying écorché sculptures both in drawing and in painting

27 while in Paris, probably even before he attended Matisse's school. (Fig. 16, Cat. No. 68) We can only guess the identity of the people in these stories. In all likelihood it was the apprentice sculptor József Brummer who, according to Gertrude Stein's account, shocked the female students, when, in addition to being a student and also working as a wood stove attendant at the school, he applied for a position as a model.

36 As for the "hero" of the other anecdote, who allegedly ate the bread, which was meant to be used as eraser to correct the charcoal drawings, his identity cannot be established. 13. Rudolf Levy in Einar Jolins' studio, first decade of the 1900s. Archive photograph 14. Matisse and his students, 1909 Archive photograph