110835

Doctor Ferenc Ripka 1930
Bust length to the left, head turned in three-quarter profile, wearing a black jacket with white wing collar shirt, a purple coloured tie with a pearl pin
Oil on board, 100 x 75.5 cm [39 ⅓ x 29 ¾ in.]

Inscribed lower right: május 8ikának emlékül / szerető tisztelettel! / London 1930. V. /  László Fülöp  [Memory of 8th of May / with affectionate honours / London, 1930. V ./ László Fülöp]

Sitters’ Book II, f. 65: Dr. Ripka Ferencz 1930. máj. 10

The circumstances in which this portrait was painted are described by de László in a letter dated 19 May 1930 written to his friend Isván Bárczy [111342]: “Last week the Budapest Choir kept me very busy. We gave an “At Home” when they entertained over 150 guests here among whom were the Hungarian Minister and the whole of the Legation...They all enjoyed the afternoon very much…The Choir had a great reception in London. After the music was over at our “At Home” I was very much moved as all of a sudden, without giving me any warning, the Choir surrounded me and the Lord Mayor of Budapest made a wonderful speech. I was scarcely able to control myself from bursting into tears as I felt his words came from the depths of his heart, and I was extremely moved when the Choir sang the Hungarian “For he is a jolly good fellow.” As a souvenir of the occasion I did a sketch of the Lord Mayor. No doubt you will see it in the Budapest Autumn Exhibition. We were so happy to receive those fine Hungarian fellows in our home. They honoured me by handing me a diploma as an honorary member of their Choir. I was again in their company when present at the splendid dinner which Lord Rothermere and his son gave at the Savoy Hotel in their honour. I never saw such enthusiasm as there was that evening between the Hungarians and Lord Rothermere.”^[1]

Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere was a hero in Hungary for his support of their efforts to reverse the Treaty of Trianon, which saw two-thirds of its territory ceded to Romania after the First World War. His portrait was painted by de László for the Hungarian Parliament in July 1930 [4759]. His son Esmond [4744] visited Budapest in 1928 and was celebrated with parades of tens of thousands of people.

The present portrait was included in the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists at the Nemzeti Szalon, Budapest, in October 1930 and featured as the first illustration in the catalogue.^[2] László Kézdi-Kovács [113202], a Hungarian landscape painter and friend of the artist since the early 1890s, wrote to de László to congratulate him on his success and referred to the portraits of Viscount Rothermere [4759] and the 7th Marquess of Londonderry [6136] shown at the Winter Exhibition of the Nemzeti Szalon December 1930 - January 1931: “Here I congratulate you also on your beautiful paintings shown at the winter exhibition ... I have also arranged that they should send you a catalogue of the exhibition, of which the first illustration is the portrait of Ripka. It had a specially great success at the vernissage and it was hardly possible to move in the Szalon.”^[3] 

Ferenc Ripka was born 1 September 1871 in Isaszeg, near Gödöllő, the second son of Antal Ripka (died 1877), an assistant forester in the Crown Forest, and his wife Mária Szkalka (1841-1912). He won scholarships to attend the universities of Budapest and Kolozsvár^[4] and  supported himself by tutoring and as a journalist. From 1894 he was employed by the Ganz machine manufacturing company. Between 1913 and 1924 he was general manager of the Budapest Gas Works. He became leader of the Citizens’ Party [Polgári Párt] of Prime Minister Count István Bethlen [2487].

In 1924 the Regent Admiral Horthy [5684] appointed him Government Commissioner for Budapest and from 1925 to 1932 he was Lord Mayor of Budapest. He introduced a number of reforms to put the financial affairs of the city in order. He was awarded numerous orders and decorations, and from 1927 he became a member of the Upper House of Parliament. He wrote a number of books about Gödöllő and its connection with Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Queen of Hungary [7857] and technical works about the electricity supply of cities.

Doctor Ripka was President of the Budai Dalárda [Choir of Buda], a male choir founded in 1852 and modelled on the mediaeval traditions of minstrels’ guilds. In April 1930 Ripka wrote to de László asking for his help and support for the Choir’s visit to London.^[5] For Hungary the visit had important political significance, and was part of an attempt to overcome the country’s isolation in Europe after the Treaty of Trianon. He had a long association with the development of the resort of Fonyód on the southern shore of Lake Balaton, where de László stayed with his friend Doctor Zsigmond László [13399] in July 1896.^[6] De László’s mentor Elek de Lippich [112171] and Miklós Szabó de Nárai [7229], President of the Supreme Court of Hungary, also owned villas there.^[7] Ripka married Ludovika Lipcsey in 1897. He died of heart disease in Budapest on 9 March 1944.

EXHIBITED:
Nemzeti Szalon, Budapest, Független Művészek Társasága [Society of Independent Artists], October 1930, no. 106a

LITERATURE:
•Varga, István ed., László Gábor 1896-os fonyódi naplója (The 1896 Fonyód diary of Gábor László), Agenda Natura, Veszprém, 2008.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Philip de László. His Life and Art. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2010, p. 218

•DLA032-0101, letter from Doctor Ferenc Ripka to de László, 28 April 1930
•DLA019-0098, letter from de Lászlό to István Bárczy de Bárciháza, 19 May 1930
•DLA032-0105, letter from Doctor Ferenc Ripka to de László, 10 June 1930
•DLA032-0025, letter from László Kézdi-Kovács to de László, 17 September 1930

•DLA162-0364, Pesti Hírlap, 21 September 1930, p. 14

•DLA162-0037, Pesti Hírlap, 2 October 1930 [page unknown]

•DLA162-0084, Pesti Hírlap, 5 October 1930, p. 35

•DLA032-0010, letter from Doctor Ferenc Ripka to de László, 22 December 1930
•DLA032-0022, letter from László Kézdi-Kovács to de László, 10 January 1931



Pd’O & BS 2019