Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 99. (Budapest, 2003)

THE YEAR 2003 - NEW ACQUISITIONS - CIFKA, BRIGITTA: Sir Joseph Noel Patorís Madonna with the Sleeping Christ Child and the Infant Saint John the Baptist

After three years as designer in a damask factory in Paisley, Paton went to London in 1842, where he took a studentship at the Royal Academy Schools and became a friend of John Everett Millais. It was however only one year and a half later that he returned to Scotland for good without completing his studies. By the 1840s he had already established himself as a successful painter in Edinburgh. His being first to represent nudes (fairies) in Scottish painting attracted quite a lot publicity. He was admitted as a full member to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1850. His first English publisher, London Art Union, made him a sought-after illustrator nationwide. As painter and illustrator alike, he sought a source of inspiration in the Bible, the works of Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, W E. Aytoun, Ivan Bunyan, Tennyson, Goethe, Dante, and, above all, the plays of Shakespeare. He is considered to have been at the peak of his powers in his "Pre-Raphaelite" period, from 1850 to the mid-sixties. The similar artistic attitude, the identical literary inspirations and his clearly outlined, meticulously detailed style endeared him to the founders of the "Brotherhood", themselves belonging to a younger generation, and was called back to London by them, particularly by the old friend Millais; the initiation however led to no success. It was Ruskin who admired Paton's art the greatest, calling the artist a "genius of Edinburgh". The paintings from Paton's Pre-Raphaelite period maybe regarded a specific, Scottish version of the movement, surpassing "the English" in its romantic emotional richness.

3 During the mid-sixties, Paton's style took a turn towards Academicism. He quitted the finely detailed manner, his responsiveness to natural environment declined and his subject matter was virtually reduced to the Bible. This however did not prevent his work from enjoying a popularity that was made more widespread by three Scottish art dealers who were active in distributing his religious images. Several exhibitions of his works were organized throughout Britain, and the demand for copies after these had increased. Engravings and photoengravings after his paintings were extremely popular with the pious English and Scottish public that had a penchant for Sentimentalism.

4 Amidst all the rush to fulfil the demands of art dealers, Paton once again evoked all the virtues of his Pre-Raphaelite period in 1886. Saint Margaret Translating the Bible to Malcolm Canmore, now City Chambers, Dunfermline, was executed upon a commission by an old friend. It is not only the poetic mood that indicates a personal belonging but the use of his own physiognomy for the representation of the Margit, in Emlékkönyv Szent István király halálának kilencszázadik évfordulóján 2 (ed. Serédi,}.), Budapest 1928, 527-550; Kirschbaum, E. - Braunfels, W., Lexikon der Christlichen Ikonographie 7, Rom-Freiburg-Basel-Wien 1974, 506; Magyar Katolikus Lexikon 8 (ed. Diós, I.), Budapest 2003, 620-621. As to the exact nature of the family relationship between King Stephen of Hungary and Agatha (suggested to be either a sister, a daughter, a niece of the former or a kinswoman of his wife), opinions vary greatly. 3 See, for example, The Bludie Tryste (W. Scott), 1855, Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum; Evening Star (Tennyson), 1857, repr. in Noel-Paton - Campbell, op.cit. (n. 1.) pi. 8.; Luther at Erfurt, 1861, Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland. 4 Two examples are the triptych in the prayer room at the Osborne House Royal residence, Isle of Wight, 1876-1885, and the Ezechiel, 1889-1891. See Noel-Paton - Campbell, op.cit. (n. 1.) pis. 17-20.