Passuth Krisztina – Szücs György – Gosztonyi Ferenc szerk.: Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya 1904–1914 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2006/1)

AT HOME AND ABROAD - SOPHIE BARTHÉLÉMY: Pan! Dans l'oeil...The Paris Salons' Reception of the Hungarian Fauves in the Mirror of Contemporary French Critiques, 1904-1914

it was both innovative and militant, we could consider the Salon d'Automne to be the first contemporary art fair. It was first held at the Petit Palais and later moved to the Grand Palais. The infamous scandal caused by Matisse and his fellow artists, whom the critic Louis Vauxcelles ironically called "fauves", made it really notorious in 1905. Tradition, like for example the retrospective exhibitions of the great 19th-century artists, like Gauguin's in 1903, peacefully coexisted in the Salon with living art and its most innovative trends. Besides embracing several fields of art (it also had musical and literary sections), the Salon was more open to foreign art than other exhibition venues, as proven by the exhibition of applied art from Munich in 1910. Between 1906 and 1913 the Salon d'Automne was a favourite meeting place in Paris, and it attracted more and more foreign artists and visitors every year. 6 Only Rippl-Rónai, Csók and Czóbel took part from time to time at the Salons des Artistes Français and Société Nationale des BeauxArts. 7 Greatly influenced by his own study period, Rippl-Rónai built on the example of the Julian Academy when, together with Károly Kernstok and János Vaszary, he founded his free art school in 1913 in Budapest. 8 See first and foremost the articles in G/7 Blas (Firmin Javel), Le Temps (Thiébault-Sisson) and L'Éclair (Arsène Alexandre). 9 Rippl-Rónai actually remained largely unsuccessful in Hungary for a long time. His belated recognition may be explained by the fact that his oeuvre's modernity, which drew its inspiration from French art, mainly reminiscences of Gauguin and Cézanne, was at that time entirely alien to the Hungarian spirit, 10 He exhibited only one picture: L'Arbre de Noël (1029). 11 It is worth pointing out that the reproduction of the work is also included in the catalogue, (1015 on page 138), suggesting that Rippl-Rónai was quite famous even then. Another Hungarian, István Csók also exhibited two paintings at the Salon: Portrait (448) and Les Vampires (447), the latter being inspired by memories of the Carpathian Mountains, which must have been well received by the Parisian viewers, who readily embraced the exotic and strong emotional effects. 12 In 1906 Rippl-Rónai married a French girl from Burgundy, Lazarine Baudrion, who became his favourite model. In 1910 the couple visited Lazarine's family in France. On this occasion Rippl-Rónai met his Nabis friends. This was when he painted Parisian Interieur (Cat. No. 216). The war broke out during another visit to France and consequently he was interned in Mâcon for several months in 1914. 13 "Élève de MM. Bouguereau et Tony Robert-Fleury", the caption said in the publication of the 1905 Salon des Artistes Français. He showed two paintings there: Coin d'atelier (506) and Ilka (507). 14 Arsène Alexandre, "Les Salons de 1906, Société des Artistes Français", Le Figaro, 30 April 1906, 52' année, 3

e série, no. 120. Arsène Alexandre (1859-1937), who had strong relations with the Parisian art scene, started his career as a critic very early. In 1894 he launched an illustrated, satirical journal, Le Rire, to which his friend, Toulouse-Lautrec often contributed. In the same year he also worked for La Revue de l'époque and the weekly magazine, L'Art français. In 1865 he succeeded Charles Yriarte as exhibition reviewer at Le Figaro. He was among the founders of the Salon d'Automne; he was the director of the museum of Compiègne Castle in 1908-1913, and later superintendent of the fine art museums. He was a devoted supporter of the Impressionists and the Salon des Indépendants, but he was also interested in Japanese art and the Nabis group. 15 There are two biblical persons who bear the name Thamar: one is the wife of Judah's two sons. Er and Onan, who disguises herself as a lecherous woman and seduces Judah, giving birth to two sons (Gen 38); the other is David's daughter and also half-sister to Amnon, who rapes her, which is revenged by her brother, Absalom (2 Sam 13). 16 Nature morte hongroise (474); Bain de soleil (475); Paysannes de Hongrie (476). 17 "Au Salon d'Automne", le Cri de Paris , 3 October 1909, 662, 18

e année, 10. Le Cri de Paris was an illustrated, satirical weekly journal. 18 Ibid. Could he have meant Csók, when he talked about the people mimicking Matisse? 19Valensol, "Le Salon d'Automne", Le Petit Parisien, 14 October 1904, 10213, 29

e année, 2. 20 Gustave Geffroy, Journal. Geffroy was an enthusiastic supporter of the Impressionists, especially of Monet and Cézanne. In the same time he had difficulties to appreciate the new expressions of modern art after 1900. He thought that the art of the fauves was bewildering, and Cubism was shocking, and consequently he became more and more distant from contemporary modern art and devoted himself to art criticism and literature. 21 Louis Vauxcelles, "Le Salon d'Automne", L'Illustration, 4 November 1905, 3271, 63' année. 22 Jean Tehr, "Au Salon d'Automne", Le Libertaire, 4 November 1906, 215. te Libertaire, just as L'Assiette au Beurre, was an illustrated, satirical weekly magazine. Vlaminck regularly contributed to it. 23 "The foreigners have not at all been left unaffected by the things that interest our young painters. Some of them have become passionate followers of the latest movements in painting and sculpture, although sometimes they have a tendency to go overboard, as seems to have been the case with some of the Czech and Hungarian painters or Polish sculptors, who seem to produce works in overabundance, which resemble the distorted reflections of a funny looking-glass." Paul Jamot, "Le Salon d'Automne", Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1907, t. XXXVI, 3* période, 483-484. 24 "We urge the readers to visit the Salon des Indépendants: with a catalogue in hand, they should carefully inspect the exhibition and then they will see it for themselves that the place is teeming with foreigners; Americans, and Czechs, Poles and Danes, Brits and Russians, Spaniards and Hungarians, Italians and Turks have become followers, who even take their manner of execution to the extreme; they become vanguards, while the so-called Avant-garde critics and art lovers, overcome by snobbery, place laurels on their heads and erect sculptures in their praise." Gabriel Mouret, "Le Salon des Indépendants", Le Journal, 20 April 1911. In his article Mouret compared the salon to a marketplace where "primitivism, barbarism and wildness" reigned. 25 René Jean, "Le Salon d'Automne", Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1911, 2

! semestre, 53' année, 383. 26 It seems that René Jean did not know that Valy Denes (Valéria Dénes) was a woman! In the same year she married Sándor Galimberti, they often had exhibitions together. She showed four pictures at the Salon d'Automne in 1911 : Nature morte (354), Basse-cour (355) and two Paysages (356 and 357). Her husband had only two pictures at the same exhibition, they were nevertheless of similar inspiration: Nature morte (573) and Paysage (574). 27 J. C. Holl, "Le Salon d'Automne", tes Cahiers d'Art, October 1906, Paris, 108. 28 "[...] if foreign artists were suddenly to be segregated in the salons, we could perhaps realize how damaging their presence in our exhibitions halls has been to the reputation of contemporary painting in the public's eye." Jean, op. cit. (Note 25), 392. 29 "[...] perhaps it would be not without some advantages, if we put these exotic exhibiting artists into a separate group, in order not to mislead public opinion. They would be segregated, and the loss to contemporary art would be minimal..." Louis Vauxcelles, "Au Salon d'Automne. Peinture et statuaire", L'Art décoratif

, 5 November 1911, juillet-décembre 1911, t. XXVI, 2' semestre, 13* année, 179. 30 "This continuously escalating invasion by drifters largely without talent, who are brought here not to witness the pure genius of our race, as it used to be the case before, but to force upon us the eccentricity of their muddled mind, constitute a real national danger[...] Of the 709 artists exhibiting at Salon d'Automne, 316 are drifters. On the panel of jury in painting, there are 9 foreigners for every 12 French citizens. [...] Italian Futurists and 'the smoke of Hungarian and Slavic pipers' contaminate our young Frenchmen; they are to blame for the ridiculous madness, which have been illustrated through a number of examples above." J. J. Frappa, "Salon d'Automne. Il faut défendre l'art français". Le Monde Illustré. 12 October 1912, 2898, 56' année, 235. Among these "maladroit drifters" we can find, among others, Van Dongen and Modigliani! Frappa at that time was chief editor of the journal, as well as an artist. 31 "There is one point, however, where development has been general, namely concerning the invasion of Salon d'Automne by foreigners. The fact that some bloated figures have been published in the press does not make the proportion of foreigners less high. Should we see some danger in this, in unison with those who always keep worrying, warranted or not? We do not think so. France has enjoyed absolute primacy in painting and sculpture for more than a hundred years. In this area, France is the great leader and the foreign schools are merely reflections of her creative spirit." Fernand Roches, "Le Salon d'Automne de 1912", L'Art décoratif, 29 November 1912, juillet-décembre 1912, t. XXVIII, 2" semestre, 14'

année, 286. Fernand Roches at that time was the director of the journal. 32Tabarant, "Le Salon des Indépendants (avant le vernissage)", ParisMidi, 19 April 1911, 5; "Le vernissage. Le Salon des Indépendants", Le Siècle, 21 April 1911, 76' année. In this year the Russian painters had their own exhibition hall. 33 Guillaume Apollinaire, "Le Salon des Indépendants", L'Intransigeant, 22 April 1911. Apollinaire started his career as an art critic in 1902. He worked for several magazines, among them the nationalistic evening newspaper, L'Intransigeant, in which he launched a new column entitled "La vie artistique" [Art Life], which he continued to run from 1910 until 1914. His origin may have influenced the poet in forming his opinion. We should not forget the close relationship he had with the Polish artists, Boleslas Biegas and Vladislaw Granzow. 34 Louis Vauxcelles, "Exposition François de Hatvány chez BernheimJeune", Gil Blas, 29 November 1912. Vauxcelles gave expression to the anti-German feelings, which prevailed in French public opinion preceding the war. 35 "Foreigners have a very high percentage among the exhibiting artists. They include Brits, Americans, Swedes, Dutchmen, and Belgians, while the presence of Germans and Russians is especially important, and not only for numerical reasons. Their sincerity, skilfulness and talents are impressive." Thiébault-Sisson, "Le Salon des Indépendants" (T" partie), te Petit Temps, Supplement of Le Temps, 21 March 1907, 2349. 36 "We are on the lookout for talents everywhere, in every branch of human endeavour, abroad as well as in France, the country whose waning curiosity no longer pays attention to what is taking place beyond her borders. We shall follow with vivid interest the development of art abroad [...], because we hope to broaden the scope of our study through our familiarity with foreign art works, opening up new horizons, giving renewed impetus to our ideas and stimulating our creativity." Frantz Jourdain, "Le Salon d'Automne", L'Art et la Vie, Paris, 1926, 33-34. Frantz Jourdain, then the Salon d'Automne's director, was fiercely criticised during the Munich exhibition in 1910. 37 Play on the word "merveille", marvel, from which you can decipher the name Weill: mère Weill, that is, Mama Weill. 38 "Béla Czóbel's [sic!] exhibition in March 1908 had considerable moral success, but... that was all. He is strongly influenced by Matisse, in whose academy he studies, and I consider him extremely talented." Weill 1933, 148. Berthe Weill, most likely advised by Matisse, organized a retrospective exhibition of Czóbel's work as early as in 1908. Czóbel's growing importance in the Parisian avant-garde movement had by then been publicly acknowledged. Homme au chapeau de paille (Cat. No. 112) is the only one among the paintings exhibited then, which we are able to identify positively. About the relationship between Weill and the Hungarians see also Krisztina Passuth's essay in this volume. 39 "Being Gauguin's disciple, whose secrets he learned from M. Matisse and M. van Dongen, M. Czobel has a Tahitian way of forming an opinion about the human race, for which the blame is usually put on poor M. Darwin. We would have had plenty of reasons to be concerned, had M. Czobel forgotten to bring up his youth as an excuse on the invitation card he had sent to us. In other words, M. Czobel wishes to demonstrate his qualities as a painter in this manner, while he is aware of the unacceptable and temporary nature of this form all along." Pierre Hepp, "Expositions Louise Perman et Bela Czobel (Galerie Henry Graves - Galerie B. Weill)", La Chronique des Arts, 4 April 1908, 14, 128. 40 "The Fauves!... M. Matisse, the Fauve boss; M. Derain, the deputy Fauve boss; MM. Othon Friesz and Dufy, the ordinary Fauves; M. Girieud, the elegant, Italian, uncertain Fauve; M. Czóbel, the uncouth Fauve, Hungarian or Polish; M. Berény, the Fauve apprentice; and M. Delaunay, the childish Fauvette." Louis Vauxcelles, "Le Salon des Indépendants", Gil Blas, 20 March 1907, 10013, 28' année. While Vauxcelles realized his mistake regarding Czóbel's sex, he was still uncertain as to where he came from. Czóbel exhibited six pictures: Femme nue couchée (1295); Dimanche d'été (1296); two portraits (1297, 1298) and two studies (1299, 1300). 41 Louis Vauxcelles, "Le Salon d'Automne", G/7 Blas, 30 September 1907, 10204, 28e année. However, they did not mention Ödön Márffy, who also exhibited two pictures at this Salon. They treated French Fauves just as roughly, with the exception of Camoin. Friesz, for example, was called Matisse's "blind follower". Two paintings by Czobel were there: Garçon assis and Torse de femme. 42 "Of the monstrosities taking up far too much space, which are too conspicuous to miss, we should mention the works of a certain M. Czóbel, who came from Hungary, bringing with him masterpieces we would readily have done without. His composition entitled Un Jour clair in itself is sufficient inducement to visit the Salon d'Automne. In the background there is a woman, with a head reminding the viewers of a shepherdess, who is accompanied by a poor devil vomiting a hose. Can you think of anything more beautiful?" Jean-José Frappa, "Au Salon d'Automne", te Monde Illustré, 13 October 1906, 2585, 50e année. Frappa also sharply criticised the Czech Frantisek Kupka, especially in connection with his painting So/e/7 d'automne. 43 "What does Art have to do with the daubing of MM. Matisse, Wlaminck [sic!], Van Dongen, Manguin, Friesz, Derain, Dufy, Delaunay, Metzinger and the rest [...] or with the wall-papering of the naïve M. Czobel, whose qualities should not be underestimated nevertheless; still, even if we made them all into one, that would come to no good." Holl, op. cit. (Note 27), 96. 44 "While it is true that some of the astounding grimaces of Matisse, Crobel [sic!], Camoin, Derain and the likes of them are hardly suitable to bolster the reputation of the fastidious academy, we can still find occasional examples of well-composed, real and powerful studies." Henry Eon, "Le Salon des Indépendants", te 5/èc/e, 20 March 1907, 26017, 71' année. He had mercy only on the nudes of Deltombe and Vallotton's Baigneuses. 45 "When MM. Matisse, Othon Friesz, Derain, Braque, Dufy and Czobel exhibited their works in the salon of Libre Esthétique in Brussels, they are naturally put in the foreign section; it would be advisable, if this title was preserved in Paris. They are not Independent, only confused, rebelling against the Latin spirit, and deformities hoping to be passed off as indispensable part of the stage set: shocking caricatures without meaning to be." André Pératé, "Les Salons de 1907" (premier article), Gazette des BeauxArts, 1907, t. XXXVII, 1" semestre, 49' année, 3' période, 326. 46 "The genuinely independent M. Czobel Bela (as they call him in Budapest) is another Hungarian artist, whose effective and individual artistic style the viewers can study in the works he has exhibited: Portrait de moi-même, Intérieur gris, avec fille and, above else, Paysage decorative; the latter is unbelievably strange, but at least has the merit that it present nature from an unusual viewpoint." A. Boisard, "22' exposition de la Société des Artistes independents", te Monde illustré, 31 March 1906, 2557, 50' année, 204-205. Separately from these three pictures (1205, 1206 and 1209), Czobel had another five shown at the Salon des Indépendants in 1906: Portrait d'un jeune homme (1207); Enfant en robe rose (1208); Nu de dos ( 1210); Double portrait (1211); André de Székely (1212). The other Hungarian artist was Dezső Czigány; see Note 51. 47 Thiébault-Sisson, "Le Salon d'Automne", Le Petit Temps, supplement of Le Temps, 5 October 1906, 2258. 48 "Last time in Zak Gallery I had a pleasant surprise, when I was able to talk to a painter who had been a veritable Fauve in 1905 [...]. It was Czobel, who had been a young man of merely twenty back then. As energetic and as talented as ever, he has been through many schools since then; besides several other transformations, he has once been a Cubist, but his Fauvist paintings are all lost. In the Foreword of the catalogue accompanying Czóbel's latest exhibition, Dunoyer de Segonzac wrote the following: 'Here is a great painter, who scored enormous success at a remarkably young age in Paris. I remember that in 1910, Czóbel's paintings were hung in one of the rooms of the Salon d'Automne next to the compositions of the great old masters, Matisse and Rouault, without being disadvantaged in the slightest degree by such company.'" Charles Chassé, "Les Fauves et leur temps", La Bibliothèque des arts, Lausanne-Paris, 1963, 168. [Czóbel actually did not exhibit here. - The Editor] 49 Braque's letter to Czóbel, Varengeville, 26 October 1952, in: Béla Czóbel. Peintre hongrois (1883-1976). Cat. Paris, Mairie du VI' arrondissement, 2001, 21-22. 50 "In April 1927, when Gallery Bing brought together the most important artists of the beginnings for an exhibition, it quite rightly invited Czobel, whose omission would have been unfair; he was one of the fighters who stayed out of the limelight, which is lamentable, because

—notwithstanding the messmess and the overcrowdedness of his compositions

—this Czechoslovakian artist of the École de Paris conveyed lyricism that was both rebellious and poignant." 30 April, 1927. Matisse, Derain and Vlaminck were also there besides Czóbel. 51 "Please, take a look at the female figures who inspired M. Désiré Czigány: Cocotte. Although he gives identical titles to his workshe specifies them in the catalogue as 1197 Cocotte; Cocotte 1198; Cocotte 1199; Cocotte 1200; Cocotte 1201 ; Cocotte 1202; Cocotte 1203—, I can assure you that he differentiates between them in the pictures. But that does not mean he sees them as beautiful, believe me!" Boisard, op. cit. (Note 46), 204. No. 1204 was a Tere d'homme. Czigány's pastel series had most likely been inspired by Van Dongen's drawing bearing the same title, Cocoffe. It was an illustration for a special issue of L'Assiette au Beurre on 26 October, 1901, which discussed the lives of prostitutes. The theme of frivolous women handed down by Toulouse-Lautrec was a favourite topic of the Fauves, French and Hungarian alike. 52 Vauxcelles, op. cit. (Note 40). He accused Dufy of similar plagiarism, because "he tries randomly from Cézanne to Matisse, or from Matisse to Marquet". 53 "an engineer, who reduces the female body to triangles", "Berény is much simpler. Despite her unusual features, his strange little woman with cushy feet is rather vivid and colourful. The portrait is painted well and, what is even more important, it is drawn well: its ugliness is expressive." Maurice Denis, "Liberté épuisante et stérile", La Grande Revue, 10 April 1908, in: Dagen 1994, 157. His work as an art critic and theoretician complemented Maurice Denis' career as a painter. A few years earlier he supported RipplRónai, to whom he was strongly attached, in the beginning of his career in Paris. At the 1908 Salon des Indépendants Berény showed three paintings: Autoportrait, Les joueurs à la balle and Nu d'une jeune Italienne, which is mentioned here, as well as several drawings. A female nude by Czóbel was also there. 54

F. G. Morot, "Le Salon d'Automne", L'Intransigeant, 6 October 1906. The intimate genre painting was a fashionable topic at that time. Besides Estaminet flamand (1111) Márffy exhibited three paintings, all being intimately inspired: A la Crémerie (1108); Intérieur rouge (1109); Intérieur vert (1110). At the 1908 Salon d'Automne he again exhibited Chambre violette (1316), as well as Paysage ( 1317) and Nature morte aux pommes et aux poires (1318). 55 Thiébault-Sisson, op. cit. (Note 47). This "purple salon" is probably identical with the earlier mentioned Intérieur rouge. It should be noted that the Polish artist Eugène Zak frequently exhibited together with the Hungarian painters. 56 Thiébault-Sisson, "Le Salon des Indépendants" (3"" partie), te Petit Temps, supplement to Le Temps, 23 March 1907, 2351.