IVÁNYI GRÜNWALD, Béla

This painting is close to the kind of Divisionism represented by the Italian painters Pellizza da Volpedo and Angelo Morbelli.

Iv�nyi Gr�nwald painted this picture in his period at Nagyb�nya. Here he combines the atmosphere of plein air painting with elements of Art Nouveau.

Iv�nyi spent the years 1914-15 in Kecskem�t.This period can be characterized by attempts to stylize and decorate. “The Market of Kecskem�t in Winter” was painted during this period. In the background there are a Franciscan church and a baroque Calvary church inspired artists. Iv�nyi applied this motif in several pictures at the same time (e.g. “The Market-Square in Kecskem�t”, “The Market in Kecskem�t”, a sketch, and “Market-Women among Snow-Hills”, etc.). A more and more abstarct and stylized presentation can be followed in his sketches. Iv�nyi’s picture is between naturalism and presentation in plane: perspectives and shadows suggestive of space are still present. The symmetric composition indicates an abstract way of looking at the world: the location of trees without leaves and patches of red in the greyish background on both sides of the picture. The composition is based on rough and wide brush-strokes. Buildings, black contours of figures and their surroundings highlighted with light are suggestive of art nouveau.

B�la Iv�nyi Gr�nwald, another significant master of the Nagyb�nya colony, worked in the town between 1896 and 1909. A major piece born during the artist’s impressionistic period was Outing in Spring, painted in 1903.

The spring sun and air transforms the elements of the landscape into soft, vibrating zones. The figures painted with faint contours also become impersonal - dissolved in the complexity of the image, they merely constitute a part of nature. By attempting nothing more than the capturing of a fleeting moment and a vanishing mood, of all the artists of Nagyb�nya, Iv�nyi came closest to the ideas of the French Impressionists.

B�la Iv�nyi Gr�nwald, like all the other members of Holl�sy’s circle in Munich, was greatly influenced by the fine naturalism of Jules Bastien-Lepage. Right until his Nagyb�nya period, he painted in a similar style. The War Lord’s Sword (1890), a painting worthy of the standard set by Bastien-Lepage, is set apart from his other paintings from the same period; in this painting, just like in Bastien-Lepage’s works, the rustic scenes are depicted with tender sympathy.

This painting takes us back to the world of legends dealing with the origin of the Hungarian people. According to the legend, in Attila the Hun’s time a shepherd found God’s sword standing thrust into the earth. The king interpreted this as a manifesation of God’s will, and set off to conquer the western world with the sword. Iv�nyi depicted this scene very simple, in accordance with the rules of tonal painting. As a result, the painting is very different from the representative historical tableaux produced during the time of the Millennial celebrations.

Traditionally the painting is dated to 1900. According the some critics, however, recent research data indicate that it cannot be dated earlier than 1907-8.

In “Watering”, a harmonious union of man and landscape is expressed which was a fundamental experience of artists of the Nagyb�nya school. Iv�nyi prepared a small sketch with a much narrower angle for it, thus the rider’s figure dominates it. He creates a balance of dark and light patches, i.e. patches of sunshine and shadow. The huge dark green crown of trees dominating the picture, the blackish shadow of trees and horses, the waistcoat of the rider and the dark brown patch of water in the ravine counterpoise details in the sunshine. Contours become vague as the air is vibrating and impressionistic colours are painted with long strokes of the brush.