Róka Enikő szerk.: Zichy Mihály, a „rajzoló fejedelem” (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2007/4)

A „rajzoló fejedelem" RÓKA ENIKŐ

In all three versions of Daydreaming over a Paint Box the artist, disguised as a clown, is bowing to the commissioner while the genius of art is hovering above its creatures. Although Zichy was dreaming of painting monumental compositions and finding self-expression, instead of producing great visions he had to continue to make a living in Paris with painting aquarelles. Even the heroes in his 'daydreaming' are coming to life from aquarelle units. Interestingly in Russia, where graphic arts were considered as distinguished and accepted forms of fine arts, Zichy's first official recognition was attributed to his aquarelle paintings. Nevertheless, the positive reception of his graphics did not satisfy the original ambitions of the artist. During his years in Vienna he was consciously preparing to reach the highest level of academic hierachy, that is, the painting of historical compositions. Consequently, in St Petersburg he first tried to win the favour of the monarch by painting historical pictures. From the 1850s onwards Zichy kept doing his independent graphic pages reflecting his ideas of late romanticism and civilisation. His graphics, The Jewish Martyrs (fig. 88.) and Aut-da-fe, then The Messiah (Christ and the Pope, fig. 32.) around 1870, including Luther in Wartburg (fig.

34.), were made in ever increasing sizes, and the last two ones were on the verge of panel paintings. He remained within the realm of graphics, but applied the pictorial effect of clair-obscur, as if he was trying to go beyond the borders of graphics and grand art as far as the sizes and intellectual contents of his works were concerned. In the early 1870s, already having Paris in mind, he created a unique genre of temporary nature, that is, he blew up his previous compositions into 'grand graphics', The Jewish Martyrs (fig. 35.) and Aut-da-fe (fig. 36.) in 1871 and 1876 respectively. The fact that apart from slight alterations he virtually repeated his earlier compositions was coherent with nineteenth century painting practice which did not distinguish between original and répétition. However, his position as a draughtsman and his artistic ambitions resulted in his making enlarged versions of originally small size graphics, that is, not resorting to making reduction, a small version. Zichy created a special genre with 'grand graphics' remaining within the borders of painting yet exceeding graphics. Zichy considered the Paris world exhibition of 1878 as an opportunity for him to accomplish his art by doing a 'Doré like' picture. Gustave Doré, whom he already knew personally, gave an example for him not only with his monumental canvasses, but as a self-taught draughstman, illustrator, who similarly to Zichy had desired to become a renowned painter. The allegorical concept as well as the treatment of colours of The Triumph of the Genius of Destruction (fig. 39.) seem to have a lot of common features with Doré's war paintings. Although The Triumph of the Genius of Destruction was done with great artistic ambitions, contemporary critics acknowledged its graphical values only. By the end of the 1870s it had become obvious to contemporaries that Zichy was an outstanding draughtsman, but a controversial painter. By and by the artist himself had to put up with the fact that he was appreciated as a master of drawing and it was this element that was exclusively acknowledged in his paintings. He was bitterly recalling this when he wrote of his artistic career in 1897: 'The gentlemen of criticism simply did not give a shit about my talent as a painter and they only acknowledged me as a draughstman and illustrator without making concessions.' The second phase of his artistic career was built around this judgement. The illustrations made for The Tragedy of Man by Imre Madách (fig. 23, 25.) as well as the ballads of János Arany brought him indisputable success and Zichy became once and for all committed to the memory of the Hungarian public. From the 1880s onwards Mihály Munkácsy was put on the pedestal of a national painter and Zichy was canonized as a draughstman. However, the two entities, drawing and colours, failed to generate an Ingres-Delacroix like critical movement in Hungary. Under totally different social, critical and artistic conditions it was only fifty years later that the comparison of the two artists was made, but, interestingly, not by the academy or by independent artists as a manifestation of a controversy between two strikingly different generations. Although Zichy's liberal mindedness and Munkácsy's connections with Hungary's