Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 97. (Budapest, 2002)

NÉMETH, ISTVÁN: A Generous Gift or a Healthy Compromise? Some Contributions to the Background of the Donation of a Painting by El Greco

permeated by enigmatic beauty, The Penitent Magdalen (fig. 57),

2 for which a dating to 1576-77 has been recently endorsed and in which the Venetian influence is still vividly evident, has specific significance among these pictures from a number of aspects: it is not only the earliest among the Budapest canvases by the artist but quite probably is the master's first version of the theme, as well.

3 A further importance is lent to the picture by the fact that no other painting by El Greco has entered the collections of our Museum as a gift by Nemes himself, who made the donation in 1921.

4 In the present article, I would like to contribute some hitherto unknown data, which might be instrumental in throwing light upon the background of the donation. Previously referred to as hanging in the Paris collection of Ivan Stchoukine, The Penitent Magdalen was, together with four other works by El Greco, shown at the exhibition of the Nemes collection in our Museum in the end of 1910 and soon became one of the best-known and most often reproduced pieces in that distinguished Hungarian private collection.

5 Simultaneously, with the large-scale increase of enthusiasm towards the Spanish master all over Europe, Nemes had developed into the most important collector of El Greco's works within a few years, and astonished the national and international public with a sequence of newly discovered paintings (fig. 58).

6 Although Nemes' entire collection of paintingby El Greco (then consisting of 12 pieces), including The Penitent Magdalen, was auctioned at his sale in 1913, Paris, the latter, together with two other works by the Spanish master, had remained in his 2 Inv. 5640. Oil on canvas, 156.5 by 121 cm. The painting was restored by Miklós Móré in 1989. The restoration revealed that originally the canvas might have been slightly larger. 3 Barkóczi, op.cit. (n. 1 ), 11 ; Nyerges, É., La Madeleine pénitente du Greco á Budapest, BullMusHongr 76 (1992) 41-55; id., in El Greco, (Kunsthistorisches Museum) Wien 2001, 156, kat. nr. 15. 4 A thorough study has been published of the painting on the occasion of its accession to the collections of the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, Lederer, S., Greco sz. Magdolnája a Szépművészeti Múzeumban, A Mübarát 1 (1921)241-248. 5 Nemes Marcell képgyűjteményének kiállítása a Szépművészeti Múzeumban, Budapest 1910, cat. no. 4; El Greco's The Penitent Magdalen had been given special prminence in most of the contemporary accounts of the Nemes collection, often accompanying the text with a reproduction of it. See, for example: Pogány, K., Jánoshalmi Nemes Marczell, Vasárnapi Újság (1910) 625-626 (Greco's painting is reproduced in p. 624); Takács, Z., Budapest: Die Sammlung von Nemes, Cicerone II (1910) 836-838; Mayer, A. L., Los cuadros del Greco y de Goya de la colección Nemes en Budapest, Museum 1(1911) 457-468; Schubring, P., Die Sammlung Nemes in Budapest, Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst (1911) 28~38; Térey, G., Die Greco-Bilder der Sammlung Nemes, Cicerone III (1911) 1-6. 6 Eight paintings by El Greco were exhibited in 1911 in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, from Nemes' collection; one year later, at the Düsseldorf show, this number was by two higher. See: Barkóczi, I., El Greco festménycinek gyűjtése Magyarországon a XX. század elején in Hommage á El Greco (n. 1.), 25-29. As it is manifest in some of the contemporary reports, the parallel showing of Nemes' Grecos and modern French masterpieces was at least as instrumental in stimulating the spreading of a kind of "Greco Fever" in Germany and, with a short delay, in Hungary, as well, than the Spanische Reise by Julius Meier-Graefe was. (Published in 1910, this book kicked up a great dust instantly.) See: Bölöni, Gy., Greco és egyebek, in Képek között, Budapest 1967, 170-174 (originally published m Renaissance 1910. November 25); Farkas, Z., Greco, Vasárnapi Újság 1910. March 27, 259-260; Feleky, G, Greco Velázquez ellen, Nyugat (1910) 936-939; Hevesi, L, Das GrecoFieber, Pester Lloyd 1910. November 23, 1; Lengyel, G., Greco, Nyugat (1910) 1757-1758; Térey, G., Greco in Budapest, Pester Lloyd 1910. November 11.