2021 © Minden jog fenntartva! | www.szonyimuzeum.hu – www.zebegeny.hu
József Bartóky, State Secretary for Agriculture and writer, bought the house in 1905 as a vacation home for their two daughters, Magda and Melinda (Chubby). They spent lots of happy years in the house and the 5 acre garden.
Similarly to the photos from his childhood, Szőnyi himself took pictures of Zsuzsa and Peter cycling. The entry from his sketchbook leads us to think, he meticulously documented the pictures. He wrote down the date, the quality of lighting and the time of exposure: „20th Aug. Peter and Zsuzsa sitting in the middle of the fence by the stone pillars. The weather is cloudy, at 1 pm F4.5 1/50 mp/ Small plain, 15th Sept at 12 pm, sunny weather in the shade, Peter on a bicycle F 6.3 1/50 mp., 15th Sept. Zsuzsa on a bicycle in similar circumstances. From these sketches, it seems like he took pictures quite often, especially of his children, but he liked to photograph other people, and focus on different topics as well.
Jolán Szőnyi’s child, Péter Komáromy
There were no childlike sketches of his preborn child. Jolán, who was born in 1916, was brought up by her mother until the age of 8, after her death the painter’s sister, Anna Szőnyi (1891-1971) and her husband, László Korvin took her under their wings. They loved her very much, and since they couldn’t have children, they wanted to take care of her. The painter and his daughter were extremely close. Jolán Szőnyi’s son, Péter Komáromy was the painter’s only grandchild, he was born in 1951.
István Szőnyi (1894-1960) was a child in the 19th-20th century, when his continuously improving talent reached the summit. They started to focus more on the needs and age characteristics of children, the times where they were treated like adults were gone. Gradually instead of the parents, the government- the kindergartens and the schools- took over the task of childcare. Compulsory education was introduced, from 1868, according to the then active Eötvös law, children from age 6 to 12 were obligated to attend school. The goal was to beat analphabetism.
Szőnyi reached age 6 in the January of 1900, and in September he enrolled in an elementary school. A few years later, thanks to a teacher named Kálmán Lisszák, he started taking his first steps towards becoming an artist. The first teacher who discovered his talent only gave him one assignment for a whole year, to paint and draw the still-life directed by himself. At the end of his grade four class, they put together an exhibition from the paintings that he painted. During Szőnyi’s adult career he almost completely stopped painting still-life paintings.
Szőnyi was considered to be a real pater familias. His family was incredibly important to him. Jolán’s preborn child was born during the World War I, in 1916. When Szőnyi fought by the front line, he fell ill with pulmonary disease and during his recovery he fell in love with a nurse in the hospital. The girl’s family did not support their engagement and marriage, because the family found the soon to be painter unconfident and not a financially stable future husband. A few years after the war had ended, Szőnyi and Melinda Bartóky got married, had children and moved to Zebegény.
In 1910, at age 16 was when he painted his first self-portrait, which he signed in his own handwriting to gather attention. He found it extremely important to write down, that despite the painting not being finished, only the areas around his face were painted. He painted himself as a self-confident young man, not portraying any parts of himself that would remind him of childhood. His clothes look mature and serious, as he also wears a tie. However, on the other portraits, made at the same time, despite there not seeming to be a large age gap between the model and the painter, there are lots of traits to be found similar to childhood.
Children were often portrayed in their own surroundings, with their toys or in a more socially expected way, while studying or reading. They were highly different to the already practiced exercises, and the portraits made in the 17th-18th century, where children were painted as young adults, in adult clothes, surrounded by their names and attributes. On the portraits made of the 16 years old Szőnyi, you can find other details which were introduced before the renaissance. The sailor attire which was considered especially stylish as formalwear for young boys, was also worn as a uniform in the 1910s.
The introduction to the sailor attire was strongly connected to a specific event, when Edward Albert, then Prince of Wales, (later became Edward Albert VII) was dressed in the marine uniform. Queen Victoria, who was not only known and followed by England and Europe, but even America, was fond of the attire. The spreading of the uniform was greatly helped by the famous painting of Winterhalter.
Szőnyi as an artist and a father, left a rich art ensemble of his children. He meticulously listed every small detail according to the children’s growth. Károly Ferenczy, Szőnyi’s first master, also painted countless portraits of his children, Valér, Béni and Noémi. His peer left a very detailed and rich series of masterpieces to István Csók’s daughter, Júlia, whose nickname was „Züzü”.
Anna Berény, Jutka Aba-Novák, Mária (Marili) Bernáth are the daughters of Szőnyi’s peers and friends, who visited Zebegény several times. Róbert Berény’s family rented a house for summer two houses down the road from Szőnyi’s, during the years in between the first and Second World War. The artistic community forming around the painter, of which members arrived in families, painted and spent the summer together. Excluding Szőnyi from his contemporary, Aurél Bernáth painted the most significant series of child depiction of his daughter Marili, who similarly to Zsuzsa Szőnyi hated to spend her hours modelling. Bernáth himself appears in the paintings. The fact that both, the father and the daughter are visible is considered quite rare in the history of art.
István Szőnyi was born on 17th January, 1894 as the seventh and last child in Újpest. Only him and his three sisters reached adulthood. He was the only boy in the family, since two of his brothers died before he was one years old. As the smallest child and only son, he found himself in a special situation, three of his sisters also took care of him as well as his mother. He had the closest bond with Anna, who was the closest to him in age. They had a habit of drawing in his sister’s sketchbook. The 13 year old girl at first only let her 10 year old brother draw on a few pages, later however, the painter appropriated the full sketchbook for himself. Looking at the pictures Anna’s talent was obvious, but Szőnyi’s works were absolute masterpieces.
Szőnyi was completely mesmerized with his wife’s motherhood and the picture and movement of the breastfeeding mother. He made countless sketches and study plans of his wife breastfeeding Zsuzsa and Peter. He observed thousands of details, how she put her legs on the chair to support her holding the child, and how she looks at her baby with love and care. Melinda either appears as an everyday woman or Madonna with the child, making the pictures somewhat unpersonal.
The representation of Szőnyi’s mother and children are always followed by sacredness and profane ordinariness. One of the topic’s most beautiful summary is given by the painting called „Anya gyermekeivel” (Mother with her children), which can be viewed in the permanent exhibition of the museum.
„For quite a long time, there wasn’t any electricity in Zebegény; during the evenings we lit the green petroleum lamp, on the table. – It’s smoking!-said my grandmother, so my father calmly went over to the table, and turned off the flame, despite it not being that light. But for making conversation, or reading this was enough. Rarely they would also present a book of poems. At that time, I couldn’t read yet, but I already wanted to study one of János Arany’s poems, „Családi kör” (Family circle). I wouldn’t go to sleep until I stood in the middle of the room, and recited it. Everyone got tired from the declamation, just how people now get tired from the television.”
„In this world everything was in its place: Since the Danube froze during winter, it offered a lot of ice, which we kept in our basement, so in summer the watermelon and beer could stay cold. For the big wash, they lit the black stove which was in front of the kitchen, and the clothes were cooked in the cauldron standing on it. /Zsuzsa Szőnyi: „Római terasz” (Terrace in Rome), Budapest, 2021/
„No matter how much we loved the studio, my younger brother and I always ran, when we had to model. I was very familiar with the face my father would make, when he was looking for something to paint, he looked around with narrowed eyes. When I found myself standing in his view, he told me: „stand in the doorway!” I was quite energetic as a child, but I wouldn’t dare to run – that’s how a lot of paintings came to life, like „Zsuzsa a korsóval” (Zsuzsa with the jar), “Zsuzsa a falóval” (Zsuzsa with the wooden horse). To make me stay still, my father started telling me stories during modelling, but since he was mainly focusing on painting, the stories started to sound more and more funny and vibrant. For example, the hunter from Dömös, was keeping a lookout behind the rocks, when his gun went off. And from the air, fell down a big fish. Then I would start protesting again, but my dad would still continue painting.”
„After sitting for a bit, he let the model run in the garden, or do anything she wanted, while he continued the painting in his studio. After his work everyday, he brought the finished paintings down from the studio, so that he could show it to my mother. She was his biggest critique. I got used to them only talking about paintings. Allegedly, my first word wasn’t Mama, Papa, but „képi”(picture). /Zsuzsa Szőnyi: „Római terasz” (Terrace in Rome), Budapest, 2021)
Szőnyi builds the paintings capturing his children together on pairs of opposites. Girl-boy, big-small, clothed-nude, etc. The form of the two children forms a block, just like when he paints them with their mother.
He didn’t paint two children playing, but what was important in their relationship, the bond between siblings. There was only two years of age difference between the two. Szőnyi also took a lot of pictures of them, accentuating their togetherness.
The paintings that portrays Szőnyi with his family are considered quite rare. The relationship is hardly identifiable between the family members, who are lined up linearly next to each other. Szőnyi is standing pulled to the side, further from the mother and the three children. It seems like time has stopped. The stillness, timelessness and silence, which are all typical features and characteristics of Szőnyi’s art style can be easily found.
The silence in his pictures is visible. He also created the self-contained circle in his children’s pictures, the symbol of perfection and continuity. As he progresses in his life and art, he moves away from everything that is concrete, personal, and formulates timeless and eternal things. His calmness represents the philosophy of Eastern philosophers, he also sees everything created by nature as perfect. He subordinates himself and his family members to this timeless clarity he conveys.
The simplicity and lack of pose are distinct features of the painter. He translates obvious thoughts and a summary of his surrounding world, specifically about his created, wanted and overall his idolized world, of which the centre is nature and the people that are living harmoniously with it.
Szőnyi always starts out with a realistic view. This gives the sketches’ and study plans’ freshness and naturalness. He created his board pictures from these continuously gathered, visual drafts, in his studio.
One of the most important events of the summer was on the 11th August, when Szőnyi’s preformed the “Bibabó” puppet theatre (the puppet’s nickname was „Bibabó”), for which the members of the artists’ colony made up the stories, and made the puppets. The name “Bibabó” goes back to Zsuzsa being a baby. Her mother, Melinda could only feed Zsuzsa, if she played a puppet show for her, with a puppet that looked like a monkey. The little monkey’s name was “Bibabó”. Jenő Elekfy, watercolourist and Szőnyi’s friend, in the middle of the I. and II. World War, spent almost every summer in Zebegény with his family. His wife told such a good story about “Bibabó” to Zsuzsa, that they decided to create a puppet theatre. (Source: Mrs. Elekfy: „Tizennégy nyár Zebegényben” / Fourteen summers in Zebegény)
Zsuzsa and Peter used to play a lot with the children from Zebegény, and with the children of the artists’ colony. Zsuzsa, most of the time can be seen on photos with Tercsi Krebsz from Zebegény.
„The children had a separate holiday on the 11th August, on Zsuzsanna day. My father made a perfect puppet theatre from wood panels, while my mother sewed with the Elekfy’s and the other members of their circle of friends. They would sew puppets, weave or compose music. Of course they were the ones having the most fun, they probably even felt sorry when they finished all the activities. All of the village’s children were officially invited, they watched the wonderfully bouncing, moving puppets and the colourful puppet theatre in awe. My father strummed Elekfy’s guitar, while mine and the other mothers played with the puppets behind the curtains. On the terrace, after the performance, the children got hot chocolate to drink and sweetbread to eat, while they enthusiastically planned the show for next year. /Zsuzsa Szőnyi: „Római terasz” (Terrace in Rome), Budapest, 2021/
„A Finom fickók” stories were written by József Bartóky, and illustrated by his youngest daughter, Melinda (whose nickname was Chubby), signed with the name Chubby Bartóky Tóthné. The Bartóky girl, who took good care of the artistic ambitions, also studied at The College of Fine Art, where she met the famous painter during a studio visit. Melinda was already married to a wealthy landowner Zoltán Tóth, who she divorced from shortly after meeting Szőnyi, and married the painter. Instead of building up her own career, she decided to support her husband’s, being his biggest critique, until the end of his life.
József Bartóky dedicated his stories to his grandchildren, Zsuzsa and Peti, who were not even born at the time, certainly learned a lot from them.
„A Finom fickók” (The Gentle Guys) horror story collection competes with the story of Red Riding Hood, which was originally written down by the French Charles Perrault in the 17th century. In which the girl starts speaking to a stranger, despite it being forbidden, therefore she dies, with no one to save her from the tragedy. The characters despite of the adults’ warnings, play with scissors and knifes, eat before going to bed, do not greet people walking in their direction, light matches, and write on the walls. Life punishes them with hard penalties, where there’s no blood, the children are tortured by nightmares, in extreme cases, the child playing with matches lights on fire, and burns to ashes. These stories which seem so frightening to today’s generations, fit perfectly into those ages, and their idea of childcare.
Zsuzsa can be seen with her future husband, Mátyás Triznya in the picture taken in the living room. On the 19th March, 1944, they got married on the day of the German invasion. They left Hungary in 1949, and didn’t stop, until they reached Rome.
For eight years, the only way they could communicate with their parents was by sending letters. The last portrait made of Zsuzsa is a portrait painted of her and Matyi.
Zsuzsa and her Steiff doll approximately around 1927, Mama Katzenjammer a character doll, was produced by a company owned by Margaret Steiff in 1905. The most popular character dolls of the company were Missus and “Kapitány” (Captain). The idea for the dolls was given by Rudolph Dirks’s comic book, which appeared in „The Sunday” papers in 1897, and is considered the very first comic book in the world. The Katzenjammer kids titled comic book’s success lied on two sassy children committing jokes and pranks, which mostly result in the children getting spanked. Zsuzsa Szőnyi’s doll is portraying the pranksters’ loud and hot-headed mother. (Source: Research done by Orsolya Erdőháti – Ferenczy Museum)
The „Kép” (Picture) titled writing, which was introduced to the public in 1943, he says: „(…) when creating an artwork, the topic or theme is never the most important thing, but how the artist can bring to life, what he wants to say.”
Szőnyi painted several nude paintings, however in his Zebegény era, the view, home, village life and family themes are the most typical. The nude painting of his family is considered common, it makes an ordinary statement without any personal detail or characteristics. As the nudes are placed in an idyllic landscape, Melinda and her children being nude implies that they’re morally innocent, clean. They are painted so, that they remind you of the sinless golden age, the Garden of Eden. Innocence, purification was a coveted image for Szőnyi, who went through and survived World War I.
No matter where the painter went, he always created new visual sketches of the sights that inspired him, for example the street scene in Switzerland, where in 1946 with the planning of Miklós Hubay Szőnyi took part in a charity trip, with many other Hungarian artists. The mother’s or the child’s (who was holding on to their nanny) dynamic was written down on the back of a respectful invitation.
This trip was intended by the organizers to heal people from the aftershock of the war. A lot of the artists lost most of their creations since their studios were bombed. The painter’s apartment on Baross Street as well as his studio got attacked. The famous „Zebegényi temetés” (Funeral in Zebegény) was luckily rescued from the ruins. It can now be found in the Hungarian National Gallery’s permanent exhibition.
In 1950, Szőnyi bought a radio, which they placed in the living room. Szőnyi’s and Triznya’s used the radio to listen to Zsuzsa’s voice, who worked in Rome at the RAI radio, as a radio speaker in the Hungarian language.
2021 © Minden jog fenntartva! | www.szonyimuzeum.hu – www.zebegeny.hu