11601

Genre painting

Ave Maria, also known as At Vesper Bell 1895

An old man and young girl standing in a landscape in evening light, the man in the foreground on the right, wearing traditional Hungarian dress: a long jacket, wide trousers tucked into his boots and holding a spade in his left hand, his right hand to his breast in penitence; the girl behind him to the left, wearing a blouse, blue skirt and pink scarf, her hands together in prayer; a farmhouse scene with animals and trees in the background

Oil on canvas, 97.5 x 73 cm (38 ⅜ x 28 ¾ in.)

Inscribed lower left:  László Fülöp / p. fábián. 1895   

Inscribed lower centre: LÁSZLÓ FÜLÖP AVE MARIA 

Magyar Nemzeti Galéria (Hungarian National Gallery), Budapest

Early in 1895 de László returned to Budapest from Sofia having completed the commission to paint the Bulgarian Royal Family, which marked the beginning of his career as an international portrait painter. The present picture was painted in Fábiánpuszta, Szentes, in County Csongrád during the summer of 1895, while the artist was staying with his patrons, the Sváb family [112588] who owned several estates in the area.

His mentor, Elek Lippich [112171], the Secretary of the Fine Arts Department of the Ministry of Arts and Education, had a number of portrait commissions arranged for him, but felt that to build his reputation in his native country, de László should continue to work on historical and genre subjects. At Vesper Bell, or Ave Maria, painted that year, is more typical of his pre-Paris years, although it is not as strong in composition or subject matter as those with which he had previously won prizes. Nevertheless, Lippich wrote to the artist in October 1896 that the painting was selected and purchased from the Millenium Exhibition at the Műcsarnok for the Hungarian National Gallery.^[1] This painting can be seen as a variation on the theme so famously treated by Jean-François Millet in his Angelus.^[2]

The artist made a number of preparatory works for this picture, three of those are in the collection of the Hungarian National Gallery [9007] [111750] [113433] and two remain untraced [9088] [113006].

PROVENANCE:

Purchased from the artist by the Hungarian National Gallery in 1896

EXHIBITED:  

•Munich, 1895

•Műcsarnok, Budapest, Millennium Exhibition, 1896, no. 719

•Műcsarnok, Budapest, Hungarian Fine Art Society, Tavaszi kiállítás és László Fülöp, Munkácsy Mihály, Pentelei Molnár János, valamit Petz Samu és Hűvös László összegyűjtött műveinek kiállítása [Spring Exhibition and Retrospectives of Philip de László, Mihály Munkácsy, János Pentelei Molnár, Samu Petz and László Hűvös], 4 May - 30 June 1925, no. 5

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6-22 January, 2004, no. 13

•The Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 'Hungarian  Splendour’: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, 23 September 2006 – 7 January 2007

•Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Munich in Hungarian, Hungarian Artists in Munich 1850-1914, 1 October 2009 – 10 January 2010, no. 181

LITERATURE:         

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton Publishing, London 2004, p. 76, ill.

•Munich in Hungarian, Hungarian Artists in Munich 1850-1914, Budapest, 2009, p.265, ill.

•NSzL150-0023, letter from de László to Lippich, 2 August 1895

•DLA162-0307, Pesti Hírlap, 19 December 1895, p. 5

•DLA140-0014, Új Idők, volume 2, issue 13, 22 December 1895, p. 265, ill.

•DLA029-0154, letter from Elek Lippich to de László, 1 October 1896

•NSzL150-0168, letter from Ernő Kammerer to de László, 10 October 1896

•DLA029-0152, letter from Elek Lippich to de László, 18 October 1896

•DLA029-0146, letter from Elek Lippich to de László, 20 October 1896

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

•DLA162-0428, Pesti Hírlap, 25 October 1896, p. 9

•DLA162-0270, Pesti Hírlap, 16 May 1925, p. 5

•DLA, loose material, Pesti Hírlap, ill.

•DLA135-0019, letter from de László to Marczell 'Marczi' László, 27 November 1933

•DLA043-0033, letter from Marczell 'Marczi' László to de László, 2 March 1936

CWS 2008