6727

History picture

Ferenc Rákóczi II, Prince of Transylvania  1896
Three-quarter length slightly to the left, head turned very slightly to the right, looking to the viewer, wearing armour under a deep red cloak trimmed with ermine and fastened with a jewelled clasp, the Order of the Golden Fleece around his neck, a gold coloured gauntlet on each hand and a sash of the same colour around his waist, a ceremonial mace in his right hand, his left hand holding the edge of his cloak, a curtain behind him, lifted slightly on the right to reveal a distant sunlit landscape.
Oil on canvas, 176.5 x 100 cm (69 ½ x 39 ⅜ in.)
Inscribed lower right: László F. / 1896 [red paint]

Rákóczi Museum, Sárospatak, Hungary

Inventory no. 54.92.1

This portrait was painted for the millennial festivities of 1896, when Hungary celebrated the anniversary of its foundation and the heroes of a thousand years of Hungarian history were being commemorated by artists and sculptors throughout the country. The Department of Fine Arts in the Ministry of Education, headed by de László’s friend and mentor Elek Lippich, was responsible for selecting artists for these commissions. The present portrait was commissioned for the great hall of Zemplén County Hall as part of a scheme of portraits and history pictures by multiple artists.

In the autumn of 1894, de László was in Bulgaria fulfilling his first royal commission to paint Crown Prince Ferdinand [3937] when Lippich wrote to him urging him to return home: “It looks as though artists were going to have the time of their lives just now. Bishops, societies, municipalities, responding to an appeal from the Government, are pouring in orders for historical and ecclesiastical works of art for the forthcoming ‘Millennium.’ Orders for paintings costing from 10,000 to 20,000 Forints are no rarity. The county of Zemplén^[1] alone wants two history paintings at 10,000 Forints each, and about five historical portraits [...]. The Fine Arts Committee has been called upon to co-opt six members from the Association of Fine Arts and to decide which subjects should be ordered from particular artists, and which should be open to competition.”^[2] With Lippich’s help, de László duly secured a commission from the Hungarian Government to copy the portrait of Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II painted by Ádám Mányoki in 1712, which was in the collection of the King of Saxony in Dresden [6724]. He was also given the commission from the Főispán (Lieutenant-Governor) of Zemplén to paint the present portrait.

Rákóczi, who led a rebellion against Austrian domination in the early 18th century, was one of Hungary’s greatest national heroes. Since the 17th century, his family, the Rákóczi de Felsővadász, had had a close association with the county of Zemplén where they owned vast estates and several castles. De László painted the portrait soon after his return to Budapest, probably in his new studio in the Bálvány utca.^[3] He devoted much thought to Rákóczi during the preceding months, as in August 1895 he made a brief trip to the North Sea, making seaside sketches  for a painting he planned of Rákóczi in exile in Turkey [111746] & [111764], and on his way home he planned to stop in Vienna to see some Rákóczi memorabilia.^[4] Shortly afterwards, he visited Abbazia, Zara and Spalato, and during this trip he made further sketches for the planned painting, [111766] and [111768].  

Apart from the Mányoki portrait of 1712 which de László copied [6724], he must have been familiar also with other 18th century depictions of Rákóczi. The two best known and accessible images were the portrait by David Richter^[5] and the engraving by Jakob Folkema,^[6] which both depict Rákóczi wearing armour and a cape lined with ermine. There exists also a mezzotint of 1711 by an unknown Berlin engraver.^[7] This shows the Prince in three-quarter length as a warlord and ruling prince, wearing armour with an ermine-lined cape, holding a ceremonial mace, a helmet with a curtain on the left decorated with the Rákóczi coat of arms, and a distant battle scene on the right. The three-quarter length figure and composition resemble other portraits of famous generals of the period, for example the portrait of the Duke of Marlborough^[8] in the Uffizi, and of Prince Eugene of Savoy^[9] in the Historical Gallery of the Hungarian National Museum; both these were probably known to de László and may have served as prototypes for his painting of Rákóczi.  

In the present portrait, Rákóczi’s features are similar to the portrait by David Richter, but the composition resembles the Berlin mezzotint. De László’s attention is focused on the subject and his costume, which is depicted with great accuracy and suggests a thorough study of the costumes and arms of the period.^[10] The segmented pear shaped ceremonial mace is that of a Kuruc^[11] general, and the sash around his waist and the sabre were also part of the Kuruc attire. In contrast to the Berlin mezzotint, the background is kept simple, with no allusions to the status of the subject, and the pulled back curtain reveals only a distant sunlit landscape.  

Ferenc Rákóczi II lived at a turbulent period of Hungarian history; he had an adventurous life but ended his days in melancholy exile. He was born on 27 March 1676 in the castle of Borsi^[12] in the county of Zemplén, the son of Ferenc Rákóczi I and his wife, Countess Ilona Zrínyi, daughter of the Ban (Governor) of Croatia. Since 1607 three successive generations of the Rákóczi family, including Ferenc II’s grandfather, were elected Princes of Transylvania. Ferenc I did not succeed his father György II as Prince. He was involved in a conspiracy to liberate Hungary from Habsburg rule.^[13] Imprisoned, he was ransomed by his wife but died in 1676 when his son Ferenc II was only a few months old.  In 1682 Ferenc II’s mother married again, Imre Thököly, Prince of Transylvania, the leader of a Hungarian uprising against the Habsburgs. Thököly was defeated and went into exile in Turkey, while Ilona Zrínyi remained in Hungary and heroically defended the castle of Munkács against the Habsburgs for three years (1685-88). When the castle surrendered, her son Ferenc was taken from her. She eventually joined Thököly in his Turkish exile. Ferenc was made the ward of Cardinal Kollonich, Primate of Hungary, a leader of the Counter-Reformation and an archenemy of Hungarian national aspirations, about whom it was said that his “object was first to pauperise Hungary, then catholicise it, then Germanise it.”^[14] The young Rákóczi was sent to a Jesuit school in Bohemia and then lived at the Court in Vienna; his upbringing was designed to try and make him forget his heritage and to become a loyal supporter of Austria.  

In 1694 he married Charlotte Amalie of Hessen-Rheinfels-Wanfried and returned to live on his estates in Hungary. Here he made friends with Count Miklós Bercsényi,^[15] a distinguished soldier who had become increasingly disillusioned by Emperor Leopold I’s absolutism, and who persuaded Rákóczi to join the armed opposition to Austria. In 1700 Rákóczi approached Louis XIV of France, disclosing his plans for an uprising and asking for French assistance.  His letters to Louis were intercepted and Rákóczi was imprisoned and under threat of execution for treason. With his wife’s help he escaped from prison in disguise and fled to Poland. In 1703 he returned to Hungary to lead the “Kuruc,” the remnants of Thököly’s followers who were a largely untrained army of peasants.  Louis XIV gave some financial help and sent some French officers, but by then the War of the Spanish Succession^[16] had broken out and Marlborough’s victory at Blenheim in 1704 destroyed hopes of any substantial assistance from France. In 1707 Rákóczi concluded a secret treaty with Peter the Great, but Russia was involved in a war against Sweden and they too were unable to send help. In the same year the Diet of Ónod proclaimed the deposition of the House of Habsburg from the Hungarian throne and Rákóczi became Ruling Prince (Dux) of Hungary, but he did not aspire to become King.^[17] From 1708 onwards the Kuruc armies suffered a succession of defeats, and in 1711 Rákóczi travelled to Poland to seek help. In his absence his chief lieutenant Sándor Károlyi, without Rákóczi’s agreement, concluded a peace treaty (the Treaty of Szatmár). Rákóczi was offered amnesty if he took an oath of allegiance to the Emperor but he refused, and was never to return to Hungary. He spent two years in Poland^[18] and in 1713 at the invitation of Louis XIV he took refuge in France. He participated in the life of the Court at Versailles, but from 1715 onwards he spent most of his time at the Camaldolese^[19] Monastery at Grosbois^[20] where he devoted himself to meditation, and began writing his Confessio Peccatoris, modelled on the Confessions of St. Augustine. In 1717 he accepted an invitation from Sultan Ahmet III to organise an army against Austria. However, Turkey soon made peace with Austria, and from 1720 Rákóczi and his small band of followers were exiled to Rodostó.^[21] There Rákóczi completed his Confessions, and wrote his memoirs and a history of  Hungary. In his will, he asked for his heart and the manuscripts of his works to be buried in the monastery at Grosbois.^[22] He died in Rodostó on 8 April 1735. In 1906 his remains, together with those of his mother and some of his followers, were brought back to Hungary and re-interred in the crypt of St. Elizabeth Cathedral, Kassa.^[23]

Rákóczi's wife Charlotte Amalie of Hessen-Rheinfels-Wanfried, from whom he had separated in 1711, died in a convent in France in 1722. They had two sons, József (1700-1738) and György (1701-1756). Both died without male issue and the Rákóczi de Felsővadász family then became extinct.

PROVENANCE:
Zemplén County Hall, Sátoraljaújhely, Hungary;
Acquired by the Rákóczi Museum, Sárospatak, Hungary, 1954

LITERATURE:
•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler Monographien, no. 106, Ph A. von László, Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1913, pp. 32-34
•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1939, pp. 145-6, 149-50

•Tamás, Edit, The Glorious Era of the Rákóczis, Sárospatak, 2003, frontcover, ill.
•Vámosi, Katalin, Rákóczi ábrázolások a sárospataki Rákóczi Múzeumban [Rákóczi Representations in the Rákóczi Museum of Sárospatak], Zempléni Múzsa [Muse of Zemplén], no. 11, Sárospatak, 2003

•Nagy, Zoltán, Rákóczi, az államférfi [Rákóczi, the Statesman], Örökség, October 2008, p. 20, ill.

•DLA029-0091, letter from Elek Lippich to de László, 10 October 1894
•Letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 21 August 1895, National Széchenyi Library, Budapest
•DLA068-0017, letter from Count Andor Festetics, Director of the National Theatre, to de László, 10 September 1895
•DLA029-0152, letter from Elek Lippich to de László, 18 October 1895

•DLA162-0495, Pesti Hírlap, 29 October 1895, p. 6
•DLA029-0020, letter from Elek Matolai, Alispán [Deputy Lord Lieutenant] of the County of Zemplén to de László, 17 February 1896

•Letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 7 September 1896, Perbenyik, National Széchényi Library, Budapest

•Letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 2 October 1896, Perbenyik, National Széchényi Library, Budapest

•NSzL150-0037, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 22 October 1896

•NSzL150-0038, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 28 October 1896

•NSzL150-0042, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 20 December 1896

•DLA162-0074, Pesti Hírlap, 5 January 1897, p. 10

•NSzL150-0044, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 8 January 1897

Pd’O & BS 2011