MÉSZÖLY, Géza

M�sz�ly’s art developed evently. He worked from nature, and true to nature his works are full of poetic charm. He treats the poverty-stricken villages with unsophisticated simplicity. “The Bottom of the Village” is one of the most beautiful pieces of his oeuvre. The yellows and rusts shimmer with moisture, and the whitewashed cottages and white garments of the villagers shine out of the dark shadow of the lane. His carefully drawn, realistically painted pictures are never dull, they all pulsate with the poetic beauty of the scenery. His art is a welltuned overture to Hungarian “plein-air” painting. It is to his lasting credit that he left so many paintings of the Hungarian countryside.

The fastidious style of Mark�’s followers influenced the subdued and refined lyricism of G�za M�sz�ly’s landscapes. M�sz�ly spent two years in Vienna studying art, then devoted his entire life to the representation of the Hungarian plains. His pictures, painted with light brush strokes and patches of colour, lacked all definite contours; the waterfront landscapes - which he often depicted corresponded very well to this style. Fishermen’s Ferry at the River Tisza is a characteristic example of his landscapes, in which, by emphasizing the atmospheric effects and the coloured shades, he got very near to plein air painting. Simple people, who are almost always present in his landscapes, symbolize the idyllic and devout connection between man and nature.

Simple people, who are almost always present in his landscapes, symbolize the idyllic and devout connection between man and nature.

This large canvas, the masterwork of M�sz�ly, was made in Munich. It was commissioned by �gost Trefort, Minister of Culture, in 1874 for the Hungarian National Museum.

Art historians often connect M�sz�ly’s name with that of Camille Corot and by the beginning of this century he was labelled “the Hungarian Corot”. Indeed, M�sz�ly’s art is related to Corot’s and the later French plein air painters. With their mother-of-pearl, hazy colours, the pictorial values of representation and their intimate mood, they are quite reminiscent of the great lyricist among nineteenth-century French landscape painters. No wonder that foreign art dealers sold M�sz�ly’s pictures signed with Corot’s name to American collectors. There was even a big scandal - the best known among several - when, in the early 1900s a poor-quality, slightly modified copy of M�sz�ly’s Fishermen’s Hut on Lake Balaton was exhibited at the Modern Art Gallery of Dublin as an original Corot.