9877

Genre picture

The Serious Question^[1] 1893

A young man and woman seated at a table in a room with a low beamed ceiling, the woman on the left, seated on a narrow wooden bench before a window, a handkerchief next to her, her left hand held by the young man who faces her, seated at a table covered with a cloth on which there is a wine decanter, a glass and a plate of brioche, his hat and stick on a chair in the foreground, a bed piled high with blankets and pillows with a pink and white checked cover behind them, a clock and a small picture on the wall; a red geranium in a pot on the windowsill

Oil on canvas, 91 x 90 cm (35 ⅞ x 35 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: László F. 1893

Magyar Nemzeti Galéria [Hungarian National Gallery], Budapest

In 19th century Hungary the proposal and the engagement were usually merged, marked by an exchange of handkerchiefs. The handkerchief on the bench indicates that a proposal has been made. The exchange of rings was unknown among country people at that time. The room in which the couple are depicted is the best room of a humble dwelling known as the “tisztaszoba.”^[2] The bed piled high with cushions is the most important feature of the peasant's house. Their number depended on the wealth of the family and they were part of the wife's dowry, sometimes reaching as high as the ceiling. A ceremony took place a week prior to the wedding, where a decorated horse-drawn carriage accompanied by relatives takes the bed to the groom’s home.

This picture was painted in Sárszög which de László visited during the summer of 1893 as the guest of the Sváb family [112588] who had an estate there.^[3] De László painted two other genre pictures during his visit, A Courting Couple in a Rural Landscape [111738] and A Peasant Couple walking in a Landscape [9004] both depict rustic couples in a romantic context. The present painting is of particular interest as it shows that de László (despite his urban upbringing and his three years of studying in Munich and Paris) remained deeply interested in Hungarian folk customs and traditions. He made careful preparatory drawings for this important painting and further figures studies are in the collection of the Hungarian National Gallery [111761] [111774] and [113443].

PROVENANCE:

Purchased by Fővárosi Képtár [Budapest City Art Gallery], 1930

EXHIBITED: 

•Kunsthalle Krems, Austria, Die Ungarische Seele [The Hungarian Soul], 13 August 2006 - 11 February 2007

•Kloster Cismar, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, Die Ungarische Seele [The Hungarian Soul], 4 March - 22 July 2007

LITERATURE:                              

•Pesti Hírlap, Budapest, 1933, p. 51, ill.

•1850-1930: A Nyolcvanéves Pesti Napló [1850-1930: The Eighty-year-old Pesti Napló], Az Athenaeum R.-T, Budapest, 1930, p. 43, ill.

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 32-33

•Pesti Hírlap, Budapest, [undated], p. 12

•László Fülöp mesterművei a Pesti Hírlap Vasárnapjában [Masterpieces by Philip de László in the Sunday issue of Pesti Hírlap], [undated], ill.

•Bakó, Zsuzsanna and Belgin, Tayfun, Die Ungarische Seele [The Hungarian Soul], Krems, 2006, p. 69, ill.

•DLA162-0443, “László Fülöp ajándéka a Fővárosi Képtárnak” [Philip de László’s Gift to the City Gallery], Pesti Hírlap, 26 November 1936, p. 12

•DLA162-0032, Pesti Hírlap, 2 February 1940

BS 2014