The Balloon

The immediate inspiration for this painting, one of the artist’s most original ideas for a picture, came from his brother in-law’s balloon ride in 1878, as witnessed by Szinyei. This is recorded in the subtitle “B�la Probstner Bids Farewell to S�ros”. Following this balloon ride, Szinyei’s brother-in-law left for a long journey first in Western Europe and then in the Far East, in the course of which he even spent a few years in Japan. In the painting which conveys an optimistic mode, the striped balloon triumphantly reigns over the sky. The person high above is no longer interested in his fellowmen swarming below; his eyes rest on the line of the treetops. He floats, drunken of freedom, thus becoming the symbol drunken of freedom, thus becoming the symbol of the free flight of thoughts, the freedom of art which does not disappear into cosmic distances, but remain close to Earth, the living environment of people.