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

BORSOS JÓZSEF, A FESTŐ / JÓZSEF BORSOS THE PAINTER - A Foreword to the Catalogue

összevetést, az életmű egységes voltának felismerését. A kiállításon is szereplő tárgyakat kiemeléssel jeleztük a katalógusban. Az egyes művek irodalomjegyzékeiben teljességre törekedtünk, de csak a művészettörténeti vonatkozású publikációk tekintetében. A korábban Lázár Béla, illetve Kopp Jenő által nem mindig pontosan közölt 19. századi bécsi kiállítási adatokat az ott elvégzett kutatások nagyrészt segítettek tisztázni; ahol mégsem, ott jeleztük, hogy az adat nem elsődleges forrásból, hanem a magyar szakirodalomból származik. A pusztán címről, kiállítási lajstromokból ismert művek esetében természetesen fenntartjuk a lehetőséget, hogy azonosak valamelyik, legalább reprodukció formájában hozzáférhető képpel - a bizonyítás a későbbi kutatásokra vár. Tudjuk, hogy katalógusunk nem tartalmazza Borsos teljes életművét; hogy több képe maradt fenn, mint amennyit - a fenti szempontok alapján - felvehettünk a katalógusba. Mégis úgy véljük, a most elvégzett tisztázás elengedhetetlen ahhoz, hogy később egyre bővebb katalógus készülhessen. A valódi Borsos-műveket ugyanis csak akkor fogjuk tudni szakszerűen elhelyezni az életműben, ha előbb a téves vagy nem bizonyítható attribúciójúakat kiemeljük belőle. Borsosról mint művészegyéniségről nagyon kevés írásos forrásunk van; rá különösen igaz, hogy csak műveiből tudjuk megismerni. Ha e katalógus az eddiginél koherensebb képet nyújt róla - amely egyben igazságosabb is, hiszen valódi fényében mutatja őt -, akkor munkánk elérte célját. Aczél Eszter Krisztina Békefi Eszter Farkas Zsuzsa Veszprémi Nóra A FOREWORD TO THE CATALOGUE Notwithstanding the scarcity of the documentary sources, researchers have made several attempts to take stock of József Borsos' relatively small oeuvre. First to embark on the task in the first half of the 20th century was Béla Lázár. He was soon followed by Jenő Kopp, while in the 1960s and 1970s, it was Zsuzsa Molnár's turn to immerse herself in the task of cataloguing the lifework. Although hardly considered to be the final word, their findings constituted important stages in the research work. Due to the tragically early death of Zsuzsa Molnár, her work remained unpublished, but her manuscripts bequeathed to the archives of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Art History Research Institute still formed the essential foundation, on which Eszter Krisztina Aczél, Eszter Békefi and Zsuzsa Farkas based the latest catalogue of Borsos' artworks, published in 2002 and 2003 in the periodical Művészettörténeti Értesítő.The aim of their research was to collect all the titles - even if they were available only in reproduction - that have ever been attributed to Borsos. They were not concerned with the correctness of the attribution. The catalogue confirmed what Jenő Kopp had already suspected: the quality of works making up the oeuvre was rather uneven. In the course of subseguent researches and during the preparations for the present exhibition it became increasingly clearthatthis unevenness of quality had much less to do with the painter's uneven performance, and much more to do with the incorrectness of earlier attributions. If we only consider those works by Borsos, which either were exhibited already in his lifetime or had reliable provenance, then the oeuvre will seem much more uniform, i.e. it will show a uniformly high quality. József Borsos' artistic achievements as a painter went almost unnoticed from the 1860s to the 191 Os.Then, thanks to Béla Lázár's publications and the Biedermeier exhibition held in 1913 at the Ernst Museum, public interest in his art began to grow steadily, with further and further compositions being attributed to him. Some of these newly attributed works were unsigned and had nothing that could link them - stylistically or thematically - to any one of the authentic Borsos compositions. However, later on these works were actually used to serve as a reference frame in the attribution of further works. As a result of the very high prices paid out for Borsos' works on the art market, many people had a vested interest in the enlargement of his oeuvre. Nor did the presence of a signature guarantee anything: recent restoration on one of the compositions attributed to him (see Cat. No. AI 4) has shown that the signature was added belatedly. In the light of all this, we have decided that we follow up the earlier published and most extensive list of his works with a narrower and more rigorous selection. Our aim has been to come up with something like a "core material", which can subsequently serve as a more reliable frame of reference in the attribution of further compositions by Borsos. The works that make up the backbone of our catalogue have been confirmed by 19th-century sources: these paintings were exhibited in Pest or in Vienna already in Borsos' lifetime. A considerable part of these are accessible in the original, while others are available only in reproduction. We have also published the titles of those authenticated works that are in hiding, partly, because we are hopeful that they will turn up, and partly, because they undoubtedly form part of the oeuvre. The next layer of authenticity has the compositions of reliable provenance: works that either come from the original owner's (in case of the portraits, the sitter's) family or formed part of Borsos' bequest, or were published, or donated to a museum, very early on, possibly before 1913. On top ofthat, we have also listed some more compositions, but only upon careful consideration of several factors: these are works that have frequently been mentioned in specialized literature, or have already faced considerable scrutiny (for example, they have been held in a museum) or have stylistic marks that can put their attribution beyond doubt. We have formed our opinion in teamwork, and in many instances in consultation with outside experts. We are hopeful that in the future some new works and sources will surface, which will then bolster up these attributions with unshakeable evidence. We have provided ample information on each catalogue entry. Hopefully, these data will make it clear what layer of authenticity any given work belongs to. We listed the works according to genre and, within that, also in chronological order. We trust that our readers will find this arrangement the most helpful both in making comparisons between the pieces and in bringing out the uniformity of the oeuvre. In the catalogue we printed the titles of works