Sz. Kürti Katalin: Vezető a Déri Múzeum kiállításaihoz I. Régi képtár és Új magyar képtár (Debrecen, 1978)

College Professor, set on the road several Hungarian artists in the first half of the last century. It was Vienna where such painters as Miklós Barabás, József Borsos, Mihály Kovács, Bálint Kiss, respected representatives of Hungarian portrait painting studied. The Museum has a rich collection of portraits painted by these artists. Similarly Vienna was the place of the studies of Károly Marko senior (1791-1860), who later settled in Italy, where he created his idylic landscapes. One of them adorns the wall of our Gallery, and round it there are several landscapes by his disciples (Károly Telepy, Antal Ligeti, József, Molnár). The years after the 1848-49 War of Independence, time of the Bach era of oppression, saw the accomplishment of Hungarian national romanticism. In order to suppress Hungarian national independence the Austrian government fought to stifle the national culture. However, the fine arts were able to resist the strict censorship, with their visual means of expression they were suitable for the symbolic representation of national mourning. Thus, after the collapse of the War of Independence, the program undertaken in the previous Reform Age was filled with new content: the aim was to form the national view of Hungarian history. The best of the painters, just as the writers as János Arany, Zsigmond Kemény, Mór Jókai, Miklós Jósika drew material for their works fromvthe ancient history of the nation: the glorious period of the Árpad dynasty, the reign of King Matthias, the Turkish wars, and with examples from the past referred to the lost glory of the nation, the failure of the War of Independence. Symbolic significance was attributed to the painting: Lamentation over László Hunyadi by Viktor Madarász (18301917). Works with similar themes are on display in the Déri Museum: Czech King Podjebrad Introduces Matthias the Hungarian Delegates (1873), The National Assembly at Ónod. Holding firm to the ideas of the 1848 revolution, like Madarász, were Bertalan Székely as well as Soma Orlay Petrics, a relative and friend of Petőfi's and painter of several of his portraits. Our historical paintings glorify self-sacrifice (Zrinyi's Sally from Szigetvár, 1855), and condemn party factions, betrayal in the service of of a foreign power (King Solomon Being Cursed by Hig Mother, 1857). Another vigorous shoot of our national romanticiscm was: popular genrepainting. At this time the artists „discovered" the common people, however, the commoners depicted by them were not the genuine „typical" mass, but a specific, poetical one. Favoured were the themes of the outlaw, the Gypsy, portrayal of oriental people. 88