6058

Genre picture

Little Lidi^[1] 1891

A young peasant girl, standing full length, wearing a white knitted coat, with a dark scarf tied crosswise around her, a lilac skirt and pink apron and small drop earrings, carrying a dark blue pitcher over each arm, her hands clasped at her waist, a brick wall and greenery just indicated behind her and vegetation at her feet

Oil on canvas, 41.3 x 27.3 cm (16 ¼ x 10 ¾ in.)

Inscribed top left: László F. / 1891   

Magyar Nemzeti Galéria (Hungarian National Gallery), Budapest

Inventory no. 52065

In the early summer of 1891, having finished two terms at the Académie Julian in Paris, studying under Jules Joseph Lefebvre^[2] and Jean-Joseph Benjamin Constant, ^[3] the young artist returned to Ó-Becse for the third time, to spend the summer there with his friend and patron, Dr Pál Grünbaum. For more about Dr Grünbaum and Ó-Becse see [11463].

De László’s time in Paris had markedly changed his style, revealing a greater sensitivity to tonal values. He was of course very familiar with the Parisian art scene, and particularly enjoyed visiting the collection of the Musée du Luxembourg. While his rural genre pictures, especially those featuring children, recall the work of Jules Bastien-Lepage,^[4] which he must have known from both Munich and Paris, his memoirs and correspondence reveal that he was much inspired by Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan-Bouveret,^[5] a leading artist known for his peasant scenes and mystical-religious compositions.^[6] 

The present picture is a seminal early work and shows the influence of Bastien-Lepage in its subject matter as well as in its technique. De László’s palette and such close attention to the plants in the foreground recalls Bastien-Lepage’s most famous picture, Haymaking,^[7] and it can be assumed that de László was also familiar with his paintings of children, such as Poor Fauvette^[8] and Going to School.^[9] Bastien-Lepage was immensely popular during the last ten years of his life, his works were widely reproduced and a retrospective exhibition, organised shortly after his premature death in 1885, further increased his reputation.

Water-carrier children were a common sight in the Tisza area,^[10] and de László painted and drew them on a number of occasions. The earliest instance was a drawing of Peasant Boys with a Tub [10934], followed by The Water-carrier Girl [9881], The First Washing Lesson from 1889 [11561] and Water-carrier Boys from 1891 [112075]. The present picture was the most successful of this group and reveals de László’s  interest in and emerging talent for  portraiture. The treatment of the figure owes something to Bastien-Lepage’s First Communion,^[11] Nothing Doing^[12] and The Beggar, ^[13] which were all likely sources of inspiration or de László at that time.

De László intended to present this painting to his friend Dr. Grünbaum as a wedding gift, on condition that it should be exhibited first. However it caught the eye of the Emperor Franz Josef at the Winter Exhibition of 1891 at the Hungarian Fine Art Society, Budapest and he purchased it for 180 Forint for his personal collection.^[14] 

A preparatory drawing for this picture [111706] includes several figures which were probably also early conceptions for the Water-carrier Boys [112075], painted during the same summer.

PROVENANCE:  

The collection of Emperor Franz Josef from 1891/1892;

Purchased by the Hungarian National Gallery in 1917

EXHIBITED:

•Budapest, Hungarian Fine Art Society, Winter Exhibition, 1891/92, no. 329 (180 Ft)

•Műcsarnok, Budapest, Hungarian Fine Art Society Spring Exhibition and Retrospectives of Philip de László, Mihály Munkácsy, János Pentelei Molnár, Samu Petz and László Hűvös, 4 May - 30 June 1925 [Műcsarnok, Országos Magyar Képzőművészeti Társulat, Budapest, Tavaszi kiállítás és László Fülöp, Munkácsy Mihály, Pentelei Molnár János, valamit Petz Samu és Hűvös László összegyűjtött műveinek kiállítása, 1925. május 4 - június 30.], no. 50/b

LITERATURE:  

•Pesti Napló, 13 December 1891, [page unknown]

•Óbecse és Vidéke, Ó-Becse, 20 December 1891, [page unknown]

•Derek Clifford, The Paintings of P.A. de Laszlo, London, 1969, ill. pl. 7

•DLA053-0146, letter from Mátyás Polákovits to de László, December 1891

BS 2013