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The posTimpressionism in Tivadar CsonTváry KoszTKa’s oeuvre

written by

Johanna Földesi2011

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prefaCeBefore I would let you go on reading the whole paper that

you hold in your hands, dear reader, let me introduce this piece of work to you. Everything began with a task for the last semester of Cultural History…

The task was, to choose a modern fine art artist and in relation with style we had to write a workpiece about the chosen artist. I chose Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka as a subject matter for several reasons. The crucial reason was that i wanted to pick a fine art artist with whom I share the same nationality, therefore I would be able to understand his art and intentions better if it comes to analyse an artwork in my workpiece. So I looked up the Hungarian artists, who could come to question. In my parent’s house there is replica of a painting by Csontváry, namely the Springtime in Mostar (1903), which I have always admired. After reading about his life and his whole Autobiography I decided to choose him as the subject of my workpice. I was also a bit familiar with his oevre, The Solitary Cedar is one of my favorite paintings, and for me that is the most beautiful artwork ever in the art history of mankind.

I have send my idea to my Cultural History teacher, Tijn Vaes and after we discussed the possibilities, I came to the conclusion that I would write about his Postimpressionist side – Csontváry’s oeuvre can be devided to two styles: the Expressionist and the Postimpressionist. I visited the Janus Pannonius Museum at Pécs during the Summer Holiday and spent hours with his works. While I was working on this workpiece it slowly became rather a research than a simple workpiece.

Though I am a student in the Conservatory of Tilburg in the Early Music department and my major is not Cultural History, I enjoyed working on this research. I am glad to present you my final exam-piece for Cultural History, Postimpressionism in Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka’s oeuvre.

Springtime in Mostar, 1903, Oil on canvas, 69 × 91 cmJanus Pannonius Museum, Pécs

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Self-Portrait, c. 1900, Oil on canvas, 67 × 39,5 cm (Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest)This painting is connected to the Munich (the Art school of Simon Hollósy) studies in colours, and recalls Gács (Halič) where he used to work as a pharmacist. However, we do not know when and where the picture was painted. The style of painting proves that Csontváry had a good training, the purplish green shading is reminescent to his master’s, Hollósy’s. The face looks strict and firm, in his eyes determination takes place – which is completely matches the personality we get to know by reading his Autobiography.

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prologue

Mihály Tivadar KOSZTKA, known as Csontváry as a painter, was born in 1853 and died in 1919. Van Gogh and Csontváry were born in the same year, still they cannot be considered as contemporaries. Van Gogh was already dead in 1890, when Csontváry had begun to express himself as an artist (Csontváry began his drawing studies in 1894 in the school of Simon Hollósy, and stayed there as a student for six months). But not only their date of birth is the only coincidence which makes one to link Csontváry to Van Gogh, neither the similarities in their path of life – this is the only reason why Hungarian art-scholars compare him to the great European painter triumvirate – Cézanne, Gaguin, Van Gogh. Earlier they linked his art and his style to Rousseau, when from an academic point of view Csontváry was pronounced as an autodidact and his art was classified as naïve. Obvious that the comparison with the Western postimpressionist masters is bold and staggering, knowing that Csontváry was almost completely unknown in Western Europe – he had an exhibition is Paris in 1907 and after his death there were successful exhibitions of his works in Western Europe, for example in Brussels (World’s fair, 1958) or in Belgrade (1963). But Csontváry’s obscurity is just a fact, which can be explained through obvious reasons.

The fact cannot be neglected that his oeuvre is exceptionally slight considering the number of the works – his monographer, Lajos Németh counted 122 works by him, but Csontváry’s oeuvre contains slightly more: 125. Csontváry did not sell his paintings. If he was not satisfied with a particular painting, he ban-ished it to the attic or destroyed it. He kept his works always together, just like Gedeon Gerlóczy, who saved to paintings to the posterity. But Gerlóczy’s careful tenderness was also a quarantine to Csontváry’s paintings, that is why these works could not get to galleries, museums and into Hungarian and international private collections.

He broke with conventions and he was a real specimen. Critics were standing in front of Csontváry’s works just as uncomprehendingly as the other artists of his time. They did not understand anything of his art, neither his philosophy behind his works. Conservatives considered him too modern, Modern artists considered him too conservative. Anyway, it is difficult to classify him anywhere. Nowadays, this mis-understanding is incomprehensible, because since the exhibition of 1963 in Székesfehérvár, Csontváry’s popularity is being unbreakable – not only among scholars, but among the wide publicity.

The truth is that his works can be classified to the expressionism and postimpressionism. In this work piece I would like to introduce his postimpressionist side, though his point in painting was not to follow any of the new styles of his time. Csontváry purely followed his instincts and had no intention to create something new; he just wanted to express himself through his art and paint the artwork which he had a vi-sion about.

One cannot understand his works in separate pieces, because all his paintings gather around one central piece, the “Baalbek”. And I would like to introduce those important “motifs” which drove him to paint “Baalbek”. In this paper I would like to show his works between 1904 and 1907, which is his most im-portant artistic period. I would like to confute the current hypothesis that he would have been a naive and unqualified painter, someone who created the complex composition of his paintings without all conscious reasons. Looking at his ouvre, I am convinced, that the fact that he did not do the usual education for paint-ers of his age, does not have an effect on his brilliance. Also it is obvious that his art is unique and outstand-ing among the Postimpressionists.

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abouT posTimpressionism1

Before we would go on with the biography of Csontváry I would like to give a short description about Postimpressionism. The paintings that I would like to discuss later in my paper are considered Postimpres-sionist, and also I would like to introduce Postimpressionism through his works.

The word ‘postimpressionism’ (post, Latin preposition, its meaning: subsequent to, after) indicates the art historical period after the Impressionism. Postimpressionism does not refer to a single style, technique or even approach to painting. We can say that the freedom in painting came with this art historical period, when painters were not bound to rules or the academic way of representation, but they had the freedom to express themselves for the first time since art became an educative subject. This self-expression was free from conventions, and expectations, but at the same time they had to fight with the critics and the public, which were too much used to the way, how art was interpreted at that time and before.

The most famous postimpressionists all developed their styles independently, yet all were united in their rejection of impressionism. The term ‘postimpressionist’ was coined by English artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 after many of the artists had died; none of them ever heard the term or used it themselves.

There were two ways of differing from the Impressionism:1. constructive, more rational, like in the oeuvre of Cézanne, or2. gives priority to the Expressionist idiom, like in the paintings of Van Gogh.

Beside these two, we have to mention:SynthetiSm: derived from the French verb synthétiser, to synthesize or to combine so as to form a new, complex product. Synthetist artists aimed to synthesize three features: the outward appearance of natural forms; the artist’s feelings about their subject; the purity of the aesthetic considerations of line, colour and form.SymboliSm: a continuation of some mystical tendencies in the Romantic tradition; the symbols used by symbolism are not the familiar emblems of mainstream iconography but intensely per-sonal, private, obscure and ambiguous references. More a philosophy than an actual style of art CloiSonniSm: painting with bold and flat forms separated by dark contours. The cloisonnist sepa-ration of colors reflects an appreciation for discontinuity that is characteristic of Modernism.

But just like at the other styles after the Romanticism, this term does not give a clear description of the art historical period after the Impressionism, since every postimpressionist painter developed their own technique and mode of expression. Also John Rewald2 wrote that “the term ‘Post-Impressionism’ is not a very precise one, though a very convenient one.” It is convenient, when the term is by definition limited to French visual arts derived from Impressionism since 1886. Rewald’s approach to historical data was narra-tive rather than analytic, and beyond this point he believed it would be sufficient to “let the sources speak for themselves.”

1 Used sources:- http://www.reproductionartgallery.com/art-painting/post-impressionism.html- Wikipedia entries: Postimpressionism, Synthetism, Symbolism, Cloisonnism

2 John Rewald (May 12, 1912-February 2, 1994) was an American academic, author, and art historian. He was known as a scholar of Impressionism, Postimpressionism, Cézanne, Renoir, Pissarro, Seurat, and other French painters of the late 19th century. His History of Impressionism is a standard work.

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A photograph of Csontváry4

shorT biography3

Csontváry was born on 5 July 1853 in Kisszeben, Sáros County, Kingdom of Hungary (today Sabinov, Slovakia), and died 20 June 1919 in Budapest. His ancestors were Poles who settled down in Hungary. He was a pharmacist until his twenties. On a hot sunny afternoon, 13 October 1880, – when he was 27 years old – he ex-perienced a mystic vision. He heard a voice saying “you will be the greatest sunway painter, greater than Raphael!” He took journeys around Europe, visited the galleries of the Vatican, then went home to collect money for his journeys working as an apothecary. From 1890 onwards he traveled around the world.

In 1895 he travelled to Dalmatia and Italy to paint landscape stud-ies. His individual style – best illustrated by “Trees in Electric Light at Jajce” and “Storm over the Great Hortobágy” – was fully devel-oped by 1903. In the beginning of the same year, he travelled to the Middle East in search of the “great motif”. The dramatic, expressive representation of “The Valley of Tarpatak in the Tátra” is a conclu-sion of this search. He worked on his other monumental, singularly expressive painting “The Ruins of the Greek Theatre at Taormina” between 1904 and 1905. “Balbeck” is the last piece of this period, which was characterized chiefly by his pantheism and by his expres-sive use of colours.

Csontváry first showed his works in Paris in 1907, then travelled to Lebanon. His symbolic paintings of mysterious atmosphere were painted there: “Lonely Cedar”, “Pilgrimage to the Cedars in Leba-non” and “Mary's Journey in Nazareth”. His next exhibitions were in 1908 and in 1910, but they did not bring him the recognition he had so earnestly hoped for. The last major canvas “Riding along the Beach” was painted in Naples in 1909. After this year he hardly paint-ed, loneliness and the lack of understanding caused in him such a severe mental condition, that he was able to create nothing else, but sketches of surrealistic visions.

Chronology5

1853. was born on 5 July 1853 in Kisszeben, Sáros County, Kingdom of Hungary (today Sabinov, Slovakia)1856. saw a comet and the sight imprinted into his memories for a life-long time1859. began his studies in the elementary school and his parents sent him to relatives to the Alföld to learn Hungarian1862. attended to the Piarist grammar school of Kisszeben1863. Kisszeben burnt down, and while Csontváry’s father helps at the fire, his sister, Bella became the victim of the fire1865. The Kosztka family had to leave Kisszeben, because Csontváry’s father participated int he Liberty War on the

side of the Emperor. They move to Szerednye and the Kosztka boys were attending to the piarist’s grammar school in Ungvár.

3 Used sources: - Ferenc Romváry: Csontváry Kosztka Tivadar 1853-1919, Alexandra Kiadó, Pécs, 1999, page 6-9- Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon 1000-1990 (Hungarian Biographical Lexicon), the dictionary entry ’Csontváry’- http://www.hung-art.hu/index-en.html

4 Photograph found on the following website: http://eldorado.virtus.hu5 Ferenc Romváry: Csontváry Kosztka Tivadar 1853-1919, Alexandra Kiadó, Pécs, 1999, page 24

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1868. Salesman at Eperjes, he learned to speak German and calculate well.1871. Spended his pharmacist trainee time on Tiszalök in his father’s pharmacy1873. Collected herbs, he revives the pharmacy with this. He visits the World Exhibition in Vienna. From December

he continued his pharmacist trainee time in Levice1874. Wrote a general pharmacopoeia at Levice. From the summer he was a pharmacist to Spišská Nová Ves, then

he enrolled to the medical school in Budapest (microscope, chemistries, mineralogy, geology, crystallogy and anatomy studies).

1876. one-year volunteer service at the military as a certified pharmacist, meanwhile he visited the university’s law faculty, and in order to study the public administration he works at the capital as a clerk.

1877. sends a memorandum to the minister in the interest of the development of the silk breeding1880. At Spišská Nová Ves he heard a voice saying “you will be the greatest sunway painter, greater than Raphael!”1881. Confronts with Raphael works in Vatican, and he resigned to his fate, because he could not find the living

nature, the energy, the divine spark int he art of Raphael1883. He was looking for Munkácsy, but they could not meet. 1884. He opens his own pharmacy at Halič.1894. At the age of 41 he began his art studies as a painter in Munich (Simon Hollósy’s art school), Karlsruhe, Düsseldorf

and Paris. After leaving Paris he broke with the academics. He spends the summer in Dubrovnik, and then he travels to Switzerland, Genoa, Rome, Naples and Pompeii.

1895. He spent the winter in Pompeii.1896. He travelled a lot: Switzerland, Genoa, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Dalmatia, Split and Trogir1897. He paints in Italy, Dalmatia and at the Felvidék. At this point, it is difficult – almost impossible – to trace back his

biography, we do not have too much information from this period of his life. 1899-1900 He returned to Dalmatia, and works in Trogir.1900. He can be found in the catalogue of the Nemzeti Szalon (Nationalsalon Budapest) as an exhibitor artist called

Csontváry.1901. He paints in Castellammare and Pompeii, in Capri he visits the Blue Grotto, the he goes to Vico, Sorrento,

Amalfi and Posilio. He spends the winter in Castellammare.1902. He paints sun motifs in Dalmatia, Spalato, Balome and Trogir. He spends the summer in the High Tátra, there

he observes the “great motif” again. In the end of the autumn he paints in Selmecbánya and on the way to Italy he paints in Budapest. He goes from Castellammare to Taormina and he spends the winter in Castellammare.

1903. Scardone, Jajce, Mostar. He stays in the High Tátra during the summer, then he leaves for Taormina. After painting Szigetvár and the Hortobágy he travels around in Europe: Schaffhausen, Basel; Amsterdam, Haarlem, The Hague, Rotterdam; Antwerp, Brussels; London; Paris; Madrid, Toledo, Seville, Granada, Cordova, Malaga. He sails from Gibraltar to Bethlehem, shipwreck at Malta. He visits Alexandria, Cairo, Suez, Port Said, and he studies the sunset in the Sahara (Jaffa, Jerusalem, Jericho, and the Dead Sea). He gets to Bethlehem at Christ-mas Eve.

1904. In Jerusalem he paints “At the Entrance of the Wailing-Wall in Jerusalem”. Afterwards he leaves for Athens, from there to Taormina and in the end he goes back to the High Tátra and begins to paint “The Valley of Tarpa-tak in the Tátra”.

1905. He finishes “Ruins of the Greek Theatre in Taormina” and “The Valley of Tarpatak in the Tátra”. On his exhibition is Budapest his paintings are presented without frame. He paints in Jerusalem, and then he looks for the “great motif” in Damascus.

1906. He paints his largest sized plein air painting, “Baalbek” in Lebanon.1907. In Lebanon he paints the cedars. He arranges an exhibition in Paris at exhibition hall of Grande Serre de la ville

de Paris in the Crystal Palace.1908. He paints “Mary’s Well at Nazareth”. In the autumn he has an exhibition again in Budapest. He paints the

portrait, “Teacher in Morocco” in Palestine. 1909. He paints his last work, the “Riding at the Beach” in Naples.1910. He organizes his fourth exhibition in Budapest. He plans two other exhibitions in Salzburg and Vienna. His

planned exhibition in Berlin “is ceased because of the contractor’s infidelity”, though the catalogue is ready. His mental balance becomes uncertain, his psychosis is aggravated, but his public activity is constant.

1912. He publishes and works on philosophical writings, pamphlets, lectures, and brochures.1915-1918. He writes his handwritten journals at this period of time. He works on half-way done sketches. 1919. He creates his own deification on a giant sized cardboard. He dies in Budapest at the new Hospital of Saint John

because of artery inflammation. They bury him in Óbuda.

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his auTobiography beTween 1904 and 19076

It is important to understand his drive of this period, which took an effect on his whole artistic expres-sion. After he painted his great work Baalbek he began to work on his autobiography7. He met many mis-understandings and had struggles in his life according to his art and paintings, so most possibly he wrote his memoir for the next generation to help them understand his drive and the meaning of his works.

As we could see in the Chronology8, after painting Baalbek he started to concentrate more on writing: he published works on philosophical writings, pamphlets, lectures, and brochures (1912). His autobiog-raphy seems sketchy, but the style is rather emotional. Maybe that is why, for a long time they thought he might have lost his mind. In the autobiography we cannot find many indications of the year or reference to political or social events – even if we do find him mentioning political or social events, he just men-tions them as a disturbing element.

[…] But for now, let me return to Cairo to study the sunset there. While I was studying the sunset I discovered the luminous colours of the sunway which I had been looking for.

As soon as I was ready with the painting, by using the newly discovered luminous colours, I informed the Ministry of Culture and I sent a telegram to Hollósy in Munich. I went to Jerusalem I painted the reli-gion dispute, the prayer around the Wailing-Wall, 67 full-length figures on it. When I finished that, I was already on my way to the Tátra, but when I get to the Valley of the Tarpatak I do not think about how I am going to paint the scenery of the Tátra with the waterfall. I did not make any sketches, I had just ordered the huge canvas via telegram. The canvas was already prepared to work on it and it was stored in Veľká9 for the winter.

I had to leave the Carpathian Mountains in September, and I went to Athens. I was in Athens when I got the obituary of my father, he lived 88 years and he became a professor at the university when he was 65-years-old.

In Athens I found real sculpture work, and real human emotions. There, I found out that the beautiful Galatea is not a fairytale, but reality; that the cold stones becomes alive in the hands of the Greek sculp-tors, and those torsos without hands and legs began to talk; although at the Romans Moses is still mute, and its master’s incitement “parla!” is a vain effort.

That is why Rome is short of breath in anger, because he feels that God’s true wholeness is approach-ing. And when I was ready with the painting of the Jupiter Temple, the critics of Athens under this im-pression, said: at least there is a foreigner, who is able to paint Athens’ plein air, and his way is open.

I rushed to Taormina from Athens, where such a sunset was awaiting for me, from which, I was sure, would be the World’s most colourful sunway-painting. I did not have to think about the implementation for a long time either – there was not anything left than to order the canvas immediately. I have to note here, that when I opened the doors of my atelier for the public, the painting of 20 m2 had the effect on the public that its surprise was raging with them: il maestro, ungherese trovasto, nostro antico, theatro greco. They wanted me to lett he painting stay there for a bigger amount of money.

I said farewell to Taormina after staying there for a while, then I went back to the Tátra to continue the stored artwork, and when I finished that one as well, I realized, that with these two paintings I could surprise the world.

In order to do that, I planned to invite the directors for luncheon and bring them on a private train to my place, and I would showed my paintings to them as a surprise.

But what I planned assent by Destiny, became impossible because of the political situation.In September I travelled to Damascus, crossed Budapest and exhibited my large canvases without

frame in the City Park’s Iparcsarnok. Aside from the local attendance, I have to mention two events: one of them is what a Caucasian artist said, that Europe learned a lot from the Japanese, but from You, sir, will

6 Csontváry Kosztka Tivadar: Önéletrajz, Magvető Kiadó, Bp., 1982, page 22-26 (my own translation)7 There are at least 3 versions of his autobiography remained. The autobiography I used is the most detailed, most known one.8 See above9 Quarter of Poprad.

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learn more. The other event was: two teachers from Berlin asked me to allow them to invite dr. Wilhelm Oswald, the famous professor to my exhibition. He did a reading recently for the emperor, which was about that we should stop oil painting, because we cannot imitate the technique of the old masters, we cannot paint white or produce luminous colours and we are unable to paint lasting colours, because our paintings turn into brown “sauce”, which cause damage for art. Since on this exhibition the contrary is be-ing proved, the colour white is flaunting, the luminous colours are beaming here and the canvases which were painted on years ago are like they were painted yesterday.

Therefore with this result, if it is transferable “übertragbar”, the whole painter technique could be im-muned from the downfall, which the professor warned the World about.

The letter was sent to Berlin, but it came back with the response, that the professor lives in Leipzig, so the letter was sent there. Meanwhile I had to travel to Damascus and I got the response – as far as I know – in Bayreuth, which replaced his visit until January.

As I was wandering on the streets of Damascus, and I was looking for the great motif in the neighbour-hood as well, a man (seems Greek) shows up and he told me in Italian: You, sir, aren’t you looking for the motif for a great painting, but you will not find it in Damascus; I have just arrived from Baalbek, where I saw the temple in the most beautiful exposition, hurry there, now is the time to find the great motif there, that you were looking for.

On the other day at dawn I woke up in Hotel Victoria (opposite with the Sun Temple) for a light, which was descending from the high Lebanon in flaming red, it was flaming the pillars of Helios with golden breath and embraced the Temples of Bacchus, Antonio and Vesta in luminous colours. Finally it was the matter of my vision in 1880, the World’s greatest sunway plein air motif.

The motif, better to say the landscape was 350 meter wide; added to this the sacrificial stone of 21 me-ter in the quarry made the painting complete. That is how it got to Paris to the great Crystal Palace to the public, and the critic in few words was this: this artwork surpassed the World.

This is the meaning of that tiny seed I was given: the World is developed by one spiritual will and be-ing revived ot of the nothing.

The spirit of the World-developing divine revelation does not repeat himself, therefore as in nature just as in the education’s history, we can meet with permanent and monumental pictures by accident: these are the three points in nature: one of them in the High Tátra, another one in Sicily and the last one in Syria. The three enormous motif was kept for the education of the 20th century, and at the same time they were meant to prove the world-developing grand master.

After finishing these artworks I spent the summer at the cedars of Lebanon, I painted the cedars there. Afterwards I stayed longer in Aleppo; after two months two snakes chased me away from there.

I sacrificed my life to get to know the reality, to know how the world was formed and how it is devel-oped farther, because everything that exist have been formed by the will of the Advantage, and every-thing that is going to be will be exist because of the Advantage’s divine revelation. […]

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The firsT big moTif: The valley of TarpaTaK in The TáTra

To Csontváry, the Valley of Tarpatak in the Tátra (1904-05; Oil on canvas, 236 x 400 cm) was not only a pleasant scene from nature. Since he was young he had carried a vision of it within him and considered its representation as a criterion of his own artistic knowledge. Monumental composition, expressionist fe-ver and the symbolism are all characteristic of his works, and they are condensed in this powerful picture, “The Valley of Tarpatak in the Tátra”.

He recorded in his diary, “I spent the summer in the Tátra, amongst the scent of pine-trees, wild straw-berries, raspberries, and bilberries. I listened to the singing of the lark in the cornfields, the nightingale in the thicket and I saw eagles shrieking high in the sky. At dawn, day after day, I watched the flaming Carpathians and settled on Tarajka Hill at Dezső Szilágyi’s monument. From here I enjoyed the Nagy-Tarpatak waterfall and the proud Lomnic peak and others. The vivid lighting and inexpressible remote-ness of the rocks on the peak made a deep impression on me. I did not draw, I did not paint, I just watched and admired the monumental beauty of nature, the quiet deep rhythm of the atmosphere, the most beauti-ful nature-music of joy...”10

The following year, without any preparatory sketches or studies, he painted the large canvas. It is not the vast surface of the picture but the inner tension of the representation that produces the monumental effect.11

In the Museum of Csontváry at Pécs, Csontváry’s works are organized in 5 rooms. As we step in the 2nd room, the first painting that we can see is “The Valley of Tarpatak in the Tátra”. The monumental canvas dominates the wall and the whole room. Each single square centimetre was worked out in detail despite the sizes of the painting. It seems that the mountains are waving in the background. Csontváry’s presenta-tion and expression hides in playing with the proportions: if he wanted to emphasize something on the scenery, he made it bigger, and if he found a detail less important, he painted it smaller than it is in reality. That is how it is possible, that the size of building on the painting (the building of the bath), compared to the size of the mountains seems to be doll-house.

Another characteristic of the composition is, that we could divide the whole painting into small in-dependent paintings. The mosaic-likeness does not break the complete composition, this feature rather makes one feel like having a vision.

10 Csontváry Kosztka Tivadar: Önéletrajz (Autobiography), Magvető Kiadó, Bp., 1982, page 2211 http://www.hung-art.hu/english/c/csontvar/muvek/4/csont410.html

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Postcard, 1906

Postcard

It is interesting to compare the painting with the postcards of that time. Surprisingly, there are not too many differences between the two. The only main difference: the painting gives back the emotional and representational impression, which the landscape provides, perfectly.

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The Valley of Tarpatak in Tátra — detail

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The Valley of Tarpatak in Tátra — detail

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his masTerpieCe: baalbeK

StoryAccording to Csontváry’s autobiographical records, and the date of the exhibited paintings by him, he

visited the East for the first time on the winter of 1903. He did not visit the Eastern culture for the same reason, why the other artists did at the time of the Romanticism – for the mythological and cultural expe-rience. At that time he focused only on the realization of the big plein air motif, and in order to do that, the monumental painting of the scenery in the Valley of Tarpatak in the High Tatra was a crucial one. His journey to the Middle East in the very beginning was dependent from this research.

Beside the Great Tátra-motif, the other motif was the Greek theatre in Taormina12, but he did not suc-ceed by painting it: “I was longing to go back to Taormina, but I was sure, that a painting of 2 meter wide sunrise will not help me to reach my goal, and I will not be able to show to the World.”13 He destroyed the painting himself.

In the autumn of 1905 he traveled the Middle East for the second time: he visited Damascus and Bei-rut. He went to Jerusalem as well, proved by two paintings of 1905. According to his autobiography, after Jerusalem he continue his research in Damascus, there he met someone who drove his attention to the beauty of Baalbek: “As I was wandering on the streets of Damascus, and I was looking for the great motif in the neighbourhood as well, a man (seems Greek) shows up and he told me in Italian: You, sir, aren’t you looking for the motif for a great painting, but you will not find it in Damascus; I have just arrived from Baalbek, where I saw the temple in the most beautiful exposition, hurry there, now is the time to find the great motif there, that you were looking for.

On the other day at dawn I woke up in Hotel Victoria (opposite with the Sun Temple) for a light, which was descending from the high Lebanon in flaming red, it was flaming the pillars of Helios with golden breath and embraced the Temples of Bacchus, Antonio and Vesta in luminous colours. It was the essence of my vision in 1880, so the World’s greatest sunway plein air motif.

The motif, better to say the landscape was 350 meter wide; added to this the sacrificial stone of 21 me-ter in the quarry made the painting complete. That is how it got to Paris to the great Crystal Palace to the public, and the critic in few words was this: this artwork surpassed the World.”14 15

12 Before painting Baalbek, he painted again the ruins of the Greek theatre in Taormina (1904-05). See painting in Appendix on page 3013 Csontváry Kosztka Tivadar: Önéletrajz (Autobiography), Magvető Kiadó, Bp., 1982, page 2314 Used source: Lajos Németh: Baalbek, Képzőművészeti Alap Kiadóvállalata, Bp., 1980, page 9-1515 Csontváry Kosztka Tivadar: Önéletrajz (Autobiography), Magvető Kiadó, Bp., 1982, page 25

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Baalbek on a photograph from 1890

Composition and analysis:In general, the composition of Baalbek (1906; Oil on canvas, 385 x 714,5 cm) is more complex than

the ones that we can observe in his earlier and later works, and also less mosaic-like. The colours are still luminous, but the proportions seem more balanced than at ‘The Valley of Tarpatak in the Tátra’. The brushstrokes he used is horizontal, which makes the painting even wider than it is – though it is monu-mental already. The waving of the ‘The Valley of Tarpatak in the Tátra’ is not present on the painting, and the outlines are sharp, just as the contrast between the colours and shades.16

If we observe the real scenery17, we can discover that he did several corrections on the overall view. The most visible difference is that he put the houses of Baalbek closer to the acropolis; the proportions of the vertical and horizontal relations were modified in favour of somewhat raising the acropolis. By doing that, the relation between the Mountains of Lebanon and the acropolis changed, and made the acropolis rule among the valley, and equally important with the mountains. Beside the “sacrificial stone”18 he com-posed other motifs of Baalbek, which belong to the place’s culture and the townscape.

He did similar corrections at composing the lights. Both his records and the German brochure says that Csontváry painted ‘Baalbek’ at sunrise. But the direction of the shadows go against the records and the brochure, because on the painting the lights come from the west, southwest, so this makes one think of sunset. At the same time, at other parts of the painting there is no shadow cast, but diffused light – espe-cially on the front.

Csontváry divided into 3 horizontal stages. The first is the Arabian city (the stage of everyday life); in the middle we can find the acropolis, temple ruins and the remained pillars of the Temple of Jupiter, which are like jewels with its bright yellow colour. The third stage above is built up from three horizontal element: the Valley of Biqa’, the Mountains of Lebanon and the blue sky.

16 Used source: Ferenc Romváry: Csontváry, Alexandra Kiadó, Pécs, 1999, page 130 and page 12817 See the photograph on page 14-15.18 Sacrificial Stone in Baalbek, 1906-07, oil on canvas, 110 x 130,5 cm (in private collection).

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Baalbek today

19 hyperboliC: ~ refers to something related to or in shape of a hyperbola (a type of a curve; in mathematics a hyperbola is a curve, specifically a smooth curve that lies in a plane, which can be defined either by its geometric properties or by the kinds of equations for which it is the solution set), or to something employing the literary device of hyperbole.20 See comparison in the Appendix.21 Raphael Loggiai, Transfiguration – Csontváry mixes up 3 artworks here. The famous work by Raphael Santi (1483-1520) the La Trasfigurazione can be found in the Gallery of Vatican City; the mural of the great battle is one of the so called Stanza; and the Logge di Raffaelo (Raffaello Loggiai) is an arcade corridor, which was decorated with paintings (illustrations of Biblical scenes) by Raffaello (that is why it is also called the Raffael-Bible). – source: http://mek.niif.hu/05800/05889/html/ftn/ftn0002ftn48.html22 According to another source: “After I studied each of his works, I ended up at the Transfiguration, which convinced me, that I see Nature better and I see its lines sharper, but I still could not find the life-energy [I was looking for at that time]. Among these results, I discovered the mistake that everybody did in the 15th century, except Raffael in his background solutions. Rubens and his company could not handle the background, because they did not get any information from God.”

Csontváry used the curved, hyperbolic19 composition scheme, what he saw in the Vatican City on Raffaello’s La Disputa20. The figures with the camels in the corners in the foreground of the painting are driving the eyes to the centre. Though he writes the following in his autobiography, he clearly learned a lot about composition technique by studying the art treasures of the Vatican City: “After this introduction I left for Vatican City, the Realm of Art Treasures, in order to study and to figure out the nature of the task awaiting for me. I started with the sculptures, but I did not felt the warmness, not because of the cool air of the hall, but because I did not sense any life-energy out of the works. At that time, I did not know, that there is a sort of artistic-energy as well, but since I knew Nature very well, and I had always been sensing life-energy, first of all I was looking for that in these sculptures.

I went to the Raphael Loggiai21 22, but either this could not give me goose bumps. I visited the mural of the great battle and all the other artworks, but I could not find the living Nature in them. Knowing this I had more confidence in myself and thought that I posses more than the recent masters of the Vatican City. The only thing I envied from them that they created a lot of beautiful works; but they did not serve the Nature (which was created by God) – they were messengers of another spirit and that spirit was not from God.

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So I came to terms with my fate, because I understood theoretically what was going on, why I have to become greater than Raphael. After the moment, I acknowledged this I did not have any doubt anymore: I was like a triumphant general who just won a battle […]”23

By dividing the structure horizontally and creating a tiered dissection, he did not only separate the dif-ferent elements – like the city, the acropolis and the elements of the nature – but the different time zones too. The stage in the foreground is the present world’s daily life, with its own simplicity. The stage in the middle – to which our eyes are driven by the hyperbolic structure of the foreground – is the Great Past, the History of Mankind, the ancient and mythical Syria. The third stage is a twin of the middle one, where we can find the valley and the mountains. At the same time, the soft lines of the mountains and the valley widen the view, and by that the third stage represents the Eternity of Nature.24

The afterlife of the painting25

Some other paintings of his oeuvre can be originated from ‘Baalbek’26:• Sacrificial Stone in Baalbek• The cedar-paintings:

- The solitary cedar (1907, oil on canvas 194 x 248 cm; Janus Pannonius Museum at Pécs)- Pilgrimage to the Cedars in Lebanon (1907, oil on canvas 200 x 205 cm; Hungarian Na-tional Gallery at Budapest)

• Ruins of the Jupiter Temple in Athens (1904, oil on canvas 67,5 x 137,5 cm; Janus Pannonius Museum at Pécs)

23 Csontváry Kosztka Tivadar: Önéletrajz (Autobiography), Magvető Kiadó, Bp., 1982, page 1624 Used source: Lajos Németh: Baalbek, Képzőművészeti Alap Kiadóvállalata, Budapest., 1980, page 40-5725 Used source: Ferenc Lehel: Csontváry (Edited, collected and introduction written by Tibor Miltényi), Szellemkép BT, Buda-pest, 1998, page 111-11226 See illustration in the Appendix.

A photograph of the sacrificial stone in Baalbek

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Baalbek — detail

20

Baalbek — detail

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epilogue

In Csontváry’s art, we can find postimpressionist elements and characteristics, all the ones I mentioned earlier – except Cloisonnism. First of all, his art and style is very much alike Van Gogh’s, if our judge-ment is based on the expressionist fever. Synthetism is present in his style as we could observe in “The Valley of Tarpatak in the Tátra”. On the other hand his most characteristic feature is symbolism. For example all his trees are lonely, malformed and standing oblique, but there is prestige in them – he is the brilliant hybrid. Csontváry has his own system of symbols:

Cedar Tree: solitude, honour; he is alone, but he is strong, mighty, preciouspilgrimage To The Cedars in lebanon: he wanted to be lovedsTraddled Cedar on The mounTain: Pagan gods were worshipped on high placesBird of paradise: arrogance, pridewell: stands for the great, long and majestic solitude; the water is an inspiring example. He is proud of his isolation.beaCh: empty solitude; like the dawn; there is solitude in standstill, but the ship on the sea is not alone, because there is a storm on the sea.mosque: rising with dignity.27

After Csontváry painted his masterpiece, the ‘Baalbek’, his mental health weakened. It is clear, that he lost his motivation, if we take a look on his works in his last years. Some of sketches can be seen in the Janus Pannonius Museum at Pécs, but their composition and the conception is chaotic and pointless. He did not have the vision which drove him to become a painter – “you will be the greatest sunway painter, greater than Raphael!”

Shortly after he reached his goal by his masterpiece, he started to decay slowly. It seems for me, that when he lost his drive and he reached the promised28 goal, he still wanted to continue to paint, because he undoubtedly enjoyed to paint, something or someone barred him to go on. He did not have the power and the drive anymore, which he had before ‘Baalbek’, and the more he tried to start again, the more he got insane, because he could not understand why he is being barred from work.

Some scholars say, he had schizophrenia, but in my opinion he was just obsessed with his vision, and kept up with this vision, that he got his mission directly from God, to be “greater than Raffael”. On the other hand he was the subject of continuous misunderstanding from everywhere (public, critics and con-temporaries), and the constant fight wore out his strength – mentally and physically as well.

Only few people recognized his genius and one of them was the founder of the Janus Pannonius Mu-seum at Pécs, Gedeon Gerlóczy. We can read the following on the memorial plaque in the museum next to his portrait.

Gerlóczy Gedeon (1895-1975)Ösztönösen ráérezvén értékére 1919-ben megvásárolta a

kortársak által félreismert, semmire nem becsült Csontváry életművét, a megsemmisítésre ítélt képeket. Egész életében kitartóan munkálkodott azon, hogy elismerést szerezzen Csontvárynak.

Tevékenyen közreműködött az 1973-ban megnyílt Csont-váry Múzeum létrehozásában.

Halála után gyűjteménye véglegesen a Magyar Állam tulajdonába került.29

Gedeon Gerlóczy (1895-1975)He recognized instinctively the oeuvre’s value, and bought

the whole oeuvre of Csontváry – misjudged by contempo-raries –, which was sentenced to annihilation. In his whole life he worked continuously to get acknowledgement to Csontváry.

He had a major part of founding and forming the Museum of Csontváry (opened in 1973).

His collection got into the possession of the Hungarian State after his death.

Csontváry was a Prophet and an Artist at the same time. He was the prophet of the Postimpression-ism in Hungary, and like other prophets, he was not welcome in his own country. And as a true Artist, he chased his dreams, ideas and goals no matter what was the cost. His whole oeuvre is a unique treasure which should be cherished not only by his native country, but the whole World.

27 Source: http://www.sze.hu/muvtori/belso/stilusok/posztimpr/postimpr4.htm28 A goal promised by God, that what he reflects to, in his records as well.29 See his portait and the plaque table in Appendix

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23

appendix

24

Sketch from 1894

25

Sketch from 1894

26

Half distance

La Disputa by Raphael – illustration of composition and painting

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hyperboliC horizonT

upper horizonT

horizonT zone

reversed aerial perspeCTive general perspeCTive

plain, field

insighT

faCade views

axono-meTria

axonomeTria*

fronTal perspeCTive

* Axonometria or axonometric projection is a type of parallel projection, more specifically a type of orthographic projection, used to create a pictorial drawing of an object, where the object is rotated along one or more of its axes relative to the plane of projection.

Baalbek by Csontváry – illustration of composition and painting

Comparison of La Disputa and BaaLBek

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Sacrificial Stone in Baalbek (1906-07)

The solitary cedar (1907)

29

painTings originaTed from baalbeK

Ruins of the Jupiter Temple in Athens (1904)

Pilgrimage to the Cedars in Lebanon (1907)

30

Ruins of the Greek Theatre in Taormina, 1904-05, Oil on canvas, 302 x 570 cm (Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest)

31

Statue and memorial plaque of Gedeon Gerlóczy

Janus Pannonius Museum at Pécs (Hungary) – photograph

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liTeraTure and sourCes

Biography• Romváry, Ferenc: Csontváry Kosztka Tivadar 1853-1919Alexandra Kiadó, Pécs, 1999• Csontváry Kosztka Tivadar: Önéletrajz (Autobiography)Magvető kiadó, Budapest, 1982 – free translations by Johanna Földesi• Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon 1000-1900 (Hungarian Biographical Lexicon)

The first big motif: The Valley of Tarpatak in the Tátra• Fine Arts in Hungaryhttp://www.hung-art.hu/index-en.html• My own notes

Baalbek• Németh, Lajos: BaalbekKépzőművészeti Alap Kiadóvállalata, Budapest, 1980• Romváry, Ferenc: Csontváry Kosztka Tivadar 1853-1919Alexandra Kiadó, Pécs, 1999• Lehel, Ferenc: Csontváry (Edited, collected and the introduction written by Tibor Miltényi)Szellemkép BT, Budapest, 1998• My own notes

index of painTings

Csontváry-Kosztka, Tivadar: Springtime in Mostar, 1903, Oil on canvas, 69 × 91 cm; Janus Pannonius Museum at Pécs

Csontváry-Kosztka, Tivadar: Self-Portrait c. 1900, Oil on canvas, 67 × 39,5 cm; Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

Csontváry-Kosztka, Tivadar: The Valley of Tarpatak in the Tátra 1904-05; Oil on canvas, 236 × 400 cm; Janus Pannonius Museum at Pécs

Csontváry-Kosztka, Tivadar: Baalbek 1906; Oil on canvas, 385 × 714,5 cm; Janus Pannonius Museum at Pécs

Csontváry-Kosztka, Tivadar: Sacrificial Stone in Baalbek1906-07, oil on canvas, 110 × 130,5 cm; in private collection

Csontváry-Kosztka, Tivadar: The solitary cedar 1907, oil on canvas 194 × 248 cm; Janus Pannonius Museum at Pécs

Csontváry-Kosztka, Tivadar: Pilgrimage to the Cedars in Lebanon 1907, oil on canvas 200 × 205 cm; Hungarian National Gallery at Budapest

Csontváry-Kosztka, Tivadar: Ruins of the Jupiter Temple in Athens 1904, oil on canvas 67,5 × 137,5 cm; Janus Pannonius Museum at Pécs

Csontváry-Kosztka, Tivadar: Ruins of the Greek Theatre in Taormina 1904-05, oil on canvas, 302 × 570 cm; Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (better known as raphael): La disputa del sacramento1509-1510, fresco 500 cm × 770 cm; Apostolic Palace, Vatican City

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Table of ConTenTs

Preface .......................................................................................................... 3

Prologue ........................................................................................................ 5

About postimpressionism .............................................................................. 6

His life ........................................................................................................... 7Short biography ................................................................................... 7Chronology .......................................................................................... 7His autobiography between 1904 and 1907 ......................................... 9

The first big motif: The Valley of Tarpatak in the Tátra .............................. 11

His masterpiece: Baalbek ............................................................................. 15Story ................................................................................................... 15Composition and analysis .................................................................. 16The afterlife of the painting ................................................................ 18

Epilogue ...................................................................................................... 21

Appendix ...................................................................................................... 23Early sketches (1894) ................................................................... 24-25Comparison of La Disputa and Baalbek ...................................... 26-27Paintings originated from Baalbek ............................................... 28-29Ruins of the Greek Theatre in Taormina ............................................. 30Statue and memorial tablet of Gedeon Gerlóczy ................................ 31Csontváry Museum, Pécs (Hungary) – photograph ............................. 31

Literature and sources .................................................................................. 32

Index of paintings ......................................................................................... 32

Table of contents ........................................................................................... 33

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