Tender 2024

OPTIONAL WEAVING OF WORKS OF ART: 

1. Spring in the Danube Bend (tempera, canvas)

In Zebegény, one of Szőnyi's main themes was the Danube bend. He captured the unforgettable scenery in many different ways, techniques and seasons. Over the years, he became more and more successful in reproducing the light reflecting from the large water mirror, with which he experimented a lot. This picture, with its lush, bright colours, was painted during the mature period of Szőnyi's painting. It radiates the harmony and serenity that gradually became predominant in his paintings from his time in Zebegény.

2. Cold little girl (tempera, veneer)

The little girl in the picture is the daughter of the painter, Zsuzsa, who appears in several of his works. The girl is standing barefoot on the veranda of the house in Zebegény, in front of the door, wrapped in a shawl, her figure evoking a typical village scene. Szőnyi liked to capture simple, everyday moments.

3. Returning herd (tempera, canvas)

Szőnyi himself was a farmer in Zebegény, also keeping cows. From the higher point of his garden, he could also see how the cows of the herd returning home in the evenings, recognising the gate of their own house, would walk through it and enter the barn. Szőnyi not only kept cows, but also horses, goats, pigs, hens, dogs and cats. He loved animals very much. He often depicted them in his various paintings.

4. Garden pad (tempera, canvas)

An iconic work of peace and tranquillity, this work is painted from a small white bench in the painter's garden, hidden in the shady foliage. Szőnyi painted the picture in 1943 and intended it as a wedding present for his daughter Zsuzsa, who romanced her future husband, Mátyás Triznya, on this small bench at the dawn of their love. With his painting, the artist created a symbolic island of peace, protected from the horrors of war.

5. Old ferryman (tempera, canvas)

For the painters on holiday in Zebegény, the Danube bank was a particularly pleasant place. On the other bank of the Danube, in Pilismarót, Uncle Pali the boatman brought the vendors and the bathing public, often including the Szőnyis. The picture, Old Ferryman, shows the figure of Uncle Pali, who served from the age of 16 until he was 80, resting at the foot of a riverside tree. The face of the subject has become blurred, as Szőnyi became less and less interested in portraiture. His aim was not to capture a specific person, but to express timeless moments, moods and feelings.

6. Around the table (tempera, canvas)

Szőnyi's large-format painting depicts members of his family sitting around a table on the veranda, reading. The scene is not staged. It was typical of Szőnyi to depict people in spontaneous, stolen moments during their activities. The veranda was a frequent place for family and friends to gather. The picture shows Mátyás Triznya, daughter of Zsuzsa and later son-in-law, and his son Peter. A few years later Zsuzsa and Mátyás left the country as a married couple and settled in Rome. Péter Szőnyi died of meningitis in 1945, aged 18.

7. Cows in the water (tempera on canvas)

On a hot summer morning, István Szőnyi was cooling off with his family and artist friends on holiday in Zebegény on the beach in Pilismaró, when a shepherd boy drove his cows to the Danube to water them. Inspired by the sight, Szőny quickly got dressed, crossed the Danube and hurried home to get his paint can to paint the cows in the water. When the shepherd boy came up to him to look at the picture, he said in his rapture: "How beautiful". This was the most sincere praise Szőnyi had ever received.

8. Petrified dog (oil on canvas)

Opposite the house stood the Old Mill, built around 1800. The water mill was powered by a swollen stream. The houses of the former Mill Street, as well as other streets in Zebegény, were often depicted by Szőnyi in his paintings.

A detail from here can also be seen in the painting The Stone Dog. Szőnyi often watched and drew from the window of his house what was happening in the street, the people and animals passing by. He was very attached to village life, and was himself a farmer, keeping animals. He had an excellent ability to create atmosphere, and he used painterly means to capture silence. In this painting, the tranquillity of a deserted street is undisturbed even by a dog running through it.

9. Lunch at your father's house (oil on canvas)

In Szőnyi's early paintings, he often depicted himself as a character in multi-figure scenes. This picture was painted the year before his marriage. It can be interpreted as a farewell to his old family. In the scene, Szőnyi is sitting with his back to the ground, holding a glass of water (water symbolises a sense of home and love of life in some of his paintings). Opposite the painter, his father is spooning soup, with Szőnyi's mother next to him and his sisters and a brother-in-law in the background.

10. Esti train (tempera, canvas)

Szőnyi often depicted a train passing through Zebegény. He painted pictures of it in almost every season and time of day. To reproduce the sight of a train speeding through a cloud of steam was as interesting a task for him as capturing the reflections of light from the Danube. This painting, after many others on the same subject, was painted towards the end of his life.