Veszprémi Nóra - Szücs György szerk.: Borsos József festő és fotográfus (1821–1883) (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2009/4)

BORSOS JÓZSEF, A FÉNYKÉPÉSZ / JÓZSEF BORSOS THE PHOTOGRAPHER - Zsuzsa FARKAS: A Few Words on József Borsos'Photography

and curtains, the inventory lists a large, standing mirror with gilded, cut-glass edges. Of the entries mentioning the backdrops used for the photographs, three describes the subject of the representation: an oil-painted salon background, a landscape background, and a "Gothic window and door". The twelve head supports made of iron served an important purpose helping the models sit motionless for a prolonged duration. The 44,000 negatives were stored in a hundred specially made boxes arranged in five cupboards. The inventory also lists all the usual photographic accessories used at the time. Borsos' first business partner was an academic painter, Albert Doctor (1813-1888), and their partnership lasted until 1868. They were taking photographs of horses as early as 1862, and were also retouching their photographs to advantage. In recognition of their work, the Emperor awarded them the Gold Medal of the Viennese Academy. Several celebrities had their photographs taken in the studio: from Prince Géza Odescalchi to Adam Clark, and from Franz Liszt to the actress Kornélia Hollósy. The portraits of Imre Madách, a Hungarian playwright who died at an early age, became the foundation stones of a cult that has lasted to this day. The Borsos family purchased the tavern Szép Juhászné (The Shepherd's Beautiful Wife) up in the Buda hills, which was proof of their financial prosperity. Between 1865 and 1867 the Parliament was called into session to negotiate about the Compromise between the Austria and Hungary and to make arrangements for the coronation ceremony. Borsos' company compiled the album containing the 360 portraits of the Members of Parliament. As one of the albums went into the Emperor's possession, Borsos received the "Imperial Warrant of Appointment". In 1866, he took out a patent for a certain montage technigue. The year 1867 was a busy period for the photographers: people bought new clothes for the coronation ceremonies and flocked to the studios to have their picture taken. Borsos and Doctor took countless such photographs and also captured the ceremony itself. On May 19, 1869 the separation of the partnership between Borsos and Doctor was announced in the press. Borsos celebrated the completion of his 25,000th photograph in the Szép Juhászné Tavern alone, without a partner. In 1869 he received a commission to take the pictures of the entire staff of the National Theatre next door to his studio, to mark the occasion of the Intendants retirement. The lavishly produced album containing the 160 photographs is currently held in the Theatrical History Department of the National Széchényi Library. At the annual ball of the Fine Arts Society, Borsos took photographs of numerous members dressed up in all sorts of intriguing costumes. After splitting up with his partner, Borsos ran the studio in the botanical garden alone right until 1870, when the term of his license expired. In his new studio he focused on three special areas of portraiture: he made compilations of children's photographs, beauties and costumes. The full figure representations of standing or sitting models went out of fashion just then, to be replaced by half-portraits and close-ups, which showed the human face in greater detail.The small-size cards disappeared, too, giving way to cabinet photos with a format twice as large as that of the earlier favourite, the visiting card. To take part in the 1871 World Fair, Borsos sent a selection of coloured portraits and a series of photographs showing the Lánchíd (Chain Bridge), for which he was awarded a ceremonial diploma. For a year, Borsos went into partnership with Károly Koller, a photographer from Besztercebánya (Banská Bystrica), before replacing him with his son-in-law, the pharmacist János Varságh of Békéscsaba who had married his daughter, Vilma, on September 27,1867, as his new business partner. In 1877 Borsos and Albert Doctor revived their partnership. The proceeds from the tavern Szép Juhászné guaranteed Borsos a financial security. After liguidating his photography business in Pest, Borsos moved to the Buda Hills. Originally sold to the Ellinger brothers, the studio changed hands again in 1888, with its new owner, Ede Mertens, running it until 1905. The carte de visite (a photograph measuring 6x9 centimetres, copied onto a thin piece of paper and glued to a piece of cardboard) was a new invention, patented and introduced by the French André-Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854. Within ten years, several millions of such cards were completed: the fad of collecting the portraits of the notabilities and the members of the aristocracy was called cartomania in English. By the end of the 1850s the craze had reached a climax and people started to arrange the pictures in albums. There was an album for the portraits of family members, and another one for friends and the celebrities of the moment, featuring pictures of politicians, actors and actresses, along with reproductions showing the people and material objects of other cultures. The portrait of a celebrity could cost twentyfive times more than the depiction of a "mere mortal", i.e. an ordinary person. We know it from Borsos' earlier mentioned inventory that 44,000 numbered negatives were made in the studio. According to contemporary custom, every client ordered twelve copies of each carte de visite, which they then gave out as presents. Therefore, the pictures of celebrities and aristocrats survived in several copies, which were put on sale by art dealers. It is not known what, if any, control the aristocratic families had over the sale of their own photographs. Most of Borsos' surviving portraits came from this group, which is a reflection on how our museological system works. According to the customs of the age, the photographs served as source material for the artists, who transferred them to other media, such as prints or engravings. On account of the Compromise of 1867, and the coronation of Emperor Francis Joseph as King of Hungary and the associated public celebrations and state functions that followed, the traditional formal dresses of the Hungarian nobility, which was named "díszmagyar" in Hungarian, were depicted in countless portraits. In 1864 the aristocracy of Pest organized a charity bazaar for the starving. The ladies who worked behind the counters were photographed and their pictures were bound in albums. Then the proceeds from the sale of the albums were also added to the funds. A number of these pictures were, of course, made in Borsos' studio. The main characteristic of the representative portraits made between 1865 and 1868 was the ceremoniousness, which was largely due to the historical importance of the moment. The studio was dedicated to the service of the aristocracy's representational needs. It is possible to follow the