Jenö Medveczky

Tétel 3: Medveczky Jenő (1902 - 1969), Galambokat etető lány 58x31,5cm, tempera,papír,j.j.l.:Medveczky 62 A tételre itt tud licitálni >> kikiáltási ár: 100 000 HUF aukció időpontja: 2009.12.21. hétfő 18:00 CET aukció helyszíne: www.20-21.hu

MEDVECZKY, JENÖ (Savnik 1902 - 1969 Budapest). Mother and child. 1946 Oil on panel. Signed Medveczky and dated lower right. Inscribed verso. 25.5x36.5 cm. Provenance: Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest. CHF 2 500.- / 3 500.- € 1 640.- / 2 300.- MEDVECZKY, JENÖ (Savnik 1902 - 1969 Budapest) Mère et son enfant. 1946 Huile sur panneau. Signée Medveczky et datée en bas à droite. Inscrit au verso. 25,5x36,5 cm. Provenance: Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest CHF 2 500.- / 3 500.- € 1 640.- / 2 300.-

52.3 by 88.7cm., 20 1/2 by 35in. DESCRIPTION signed Medveczky lower right tempera on board PROVENANCE Estate of the artist Herman Ottó Múzeum (Sarospatak Art Gallery), Miskolc (on loan from1985 - 2003) EXHIBITED Miskolc, Herman Ottó Múzeum, 1992 Budapest, Ernst Museum, Centennial Exhibition of the works ofJenö Medveczky , 2002, no. 59 CATALOGUE NOTE Executed circa 1950.

provenance estate of the artist sarospatak art gallery, miskolc (on loan from 1985 until 2003). the sarospatak art gallery is part of the herman ottó múzeum, miskolc exhibited budapest, ernst museum, centenial exhibition of medveczky's works , 2002, no. 33 cambridge, clare hall, magyar magic - hungary in focus , 2004 catalogue note painted in 1945. jenö medveczky became a pupil of janos vaszary at the college of fine arts in budapest in 1921. he befriended and worked closely with karoly patkó (see lots 70-73 & 76), with whom he shared a studio and flat known as the 'genius warehouse'. together with vaszary he was the founding member of the new artist's association (ume) and from 1927 he was a key member of the new society of artists (kut), a member of the cehbeliek (artists' guild) and the munkacsy guild. he spent some time in rome on a scholarship between 1928 and 1930. in 1937 he won the diplôme d'honneur for the painting that decorated the staircase of the hungarian pavililon at the paris world exhibition. his masterpiece is a 49 panel series illustrating homer's iliad, which was purchased by the hungarian national gallery.

signed lower left: Medveczky 32 Bibliography: Lóránth László: Paletta. Jelen Könyvkiadó, é. n. O. Jobbágy Zsuzsa: Medveczky Jeno, Budapest, 1982 P. Szücs Julianna: A római iskola. Budapest, 1987 Rare are the chances for an auctionary exhibition to be able to display in public two Hungarian neoclassicist portraits of exceptional quality at the same time. Put together, Kontuly Béla's portrait of a child and Medveczky's work depicting a lady of stunning beauty present an excellent occasion for us to compare two paintings of similar inspiration. Both of them are characterized by emphatic structuring, minute elaboration of form and an influence dating back to 14th and 15th century paintings, those of Giotto, Masaccio and Piero, whose tradition is reestablished here by monumental and condensed composition. From several points of view, however, problems of the portrait genre, highly fashionable after the period of isms faded out, are overcome differently in these otherwise similar paintings. Of course antiquity, renaissance and contemporary Italian art proved highly influential, for both artists issued from the Roman school, but Medveczky's paintings seem to bear traces of a Parisian impact, as well. Many features of his portrait here remind one of Picasso, Braque and Metzinger - just consider the model's round eyes and her charming elegance - while out of the old school it recalls aristocratic women portrayed by the classicist Ingres. The surroundings of Medveczky's portrait follow renaissance examples with their simple structure leading to depths of architectural space. This rather puritan resolution is further combined geometrically by elevating the angle and by flattening, almost, the enclosing walls. Perpendicular lines running from where these walls join, bright light broken by and cast from the window. Each and every element of the background tot up to a veritable visual panorama. In spite of this everything appears to be altered and reshaped as if logically arranged in a formally puritan, abstract painting. To quote Dezso Korniss, 'Medveczky seems to be the one closest to abstract painting, he was so close as to filter objective painting through abstraction.' Different elements of composition, form, lines and colors result from and respond to one another, just as the arc, starting form the elbow of the left arm and ending in the neck, cuts into the elliptic curve formed by the décolletage's hem and the shadowline continuing it. The nude showing up behind the model proves an exciting and vivid formal element, but, as was natural with renaissance portraits, it also stands as an attributive requisite explaining and interpreting the person represented in the foreground. Apart from the rare recourse to, and the quality of, this pastel technique in the artist's ouevre, the painting achieves an unmatchable harmony between the depicted model's exquisite beauty, her perfect elegance and its classicist composition coupled with spectacular, though subtle, handling of colors.