László Mednyánszky, ein Genius der ungarischen Jahrhundertwende und die ungarische Stimmungsmalerei

Abstract

Summary László Mednyánszky's work is investigated in the present study in the context of Austrian “Stimmungsimpressio-nismus”, an artistic phenomenon, which corresponds in contemporary Hungarian art criticism to “Stimmungmalerei”(painting of sentiments, proposed 1886 by G. Keleti). The cult of French Impressionism has overshadowed in the art history of Central Europe a late 19th-century school of nature representation, based on sentiments and considered later as a provincial phenomenon. László Mednyánszky's paintings can be compared with the main representants of Austrian “Stimmungsimpressionismus”, and in fact he had contacts with painters as Emil Jakob Schindler, Robert Russ, Hans Canon, Wilhelm Bernatzik and Tina Blau. Inspite of his very deep knowledge about impressionist painting, he was mainly influenced by Barbizon painters, and in the first line by J. F. Millet. In the second part of the study figurative paintings by Mednyászky, representing poor people, are analyzed. Their relationship to the tradition of Ribera, Daumier, Géricault and mainly of Millet corresponds to a literary inspiration due mainly to the famous roman Les mystères de Paris by Eugène Sue. The great influence of this kind of literature is witnessed by friends of Mednyánszky.