Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2007)

ANNUAL REPORT - A 2007. ÉV - BERT W. MEIJER: Congratulations Extended to Teréz Gerszi on her Eightieth Birthday

had the chance to consult this excellent catalogue himself he would have been most flattered to see and feel in some of the pages the impact of or relation with his own work and functioning, in terms of insights, of efficient, punctual notation, of maturity and of the pure pleasure of handling and studying drawings admirably elaborated by Teréz. I am very happy to have the opportunity to share this impression with Teréz here on this very special day. However, it was already quite some time before publishing her catalogue that Teréz had become not only one of the authorities in the field of Dutch and Flemish Drawings but also one of the grandes dames, one of the grand ladies of the study field of Old Master Drawings. In this respect she is in that special class of perBERTW. MEIJER AND TERÉZ GERSZI ... . . . sonalities celebrated lor reasons ol savoir-faire, knowledge and style, such as the late Felice Stampfle and Roseline Bacou, former heads of the Drawing Departments of the Pierpont Morgan Library and the Musée du Louvre, respectively. This is all the more remarkable as the conditions in which Teréz had to work have been far more difficult and more restrained than those of these distinguished colleagues. On the kind of occasion we celebrate today, in this case the eightieth birthday of Teréz Gerszi, the official and less official speakers usually praise and flatter the hero of the hour in a way that is slightly or indeed even painfully embarrassing. With these few words I have tried to touch upon one or two themes that have distinguished Teréz's life and career and which in my opinion are the plain truth and nothing other than that. If this truth is flattering for Teréz then it is entirely due to her own outstanding professional and personal qualities. Bert IV. Meijer