212 - Károly Ferenczy (Vienna 1862 – Budapest 1917)

Károly Ferenczy (Vienna 1862 – Budapest 1917) The Wrestlers Painted in 1912 Oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm Signed and dated in the upper left corner "Ferenczy Karoly 1912" On the back of the canvas, the number 206 is written in white chalk Provenance: - 1929, Budapest, Postatak, L.I. 199; 1930, Budapest, Postatak, LV. 131; Trencsén, Dr. Leopold Ringwald. - 1939, London, Gerrards Cross. - September 29, 2009, Donnington (Berkshire, Newbury), Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions, lot no. 310. - Private collection. Exhibition: - Retrospective exhibition of Károly Ferenczy (1862–1917), Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, November 30, 2011 – May 27, 2012. - *The Naked Man*, October 26, 2012 – February 17, 2013, LENTOS Kunstmuseum, Linz. *The Naked Man*, March 22, 2013 – June 30, 2013, Ludwig Múzeum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest. Bibliography: - Exhibition catalog for the Károly Ferenczy retrospective (edited by Judit Boros and Edit Plesznivy), MNG, Budapest, 2011, p. 282; p. 374. - Exhibition catalog *The Naked Man* (edited by Sabine Fellner, Elisabeth Nowak-Thaller, and Stella Rollig), LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz – Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, 2012, p. 175. Károly Ferenczy was a leading Hungarian painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On the valuable advice of his cousin and future wife, Olga Fialka, he traveled to Italy, settled there, and began studying at the Academy of Arts in Naples in 1885. From 1887 to 1889, he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris under Robert-Fleury and Adolphe William Bouguereau. Károly Ferenczy settled in Munich between 1893 and 1896 and frequented Simon Hollósy’s circle. He then moved to Nagybánya and helped found the Nagybánya artists’ colony. He later taught at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. Károly Ferenczy was a major influence on future generations of Hungarian artists. The work of Jules Bastien-Lepage, a French naturalist painter, had a profound impact on Károly Ferenczy. In the early 20th century, Károly Ferenczy sought to demonstrate that naturalism and Impressionism could be complementary, particularly through his depictions of biblical scenes such as *The Descent from the Cross* (1903). Beginning in 1902, he moved closer to Impressionism, seeking to capture a visual impression while distancing himself from strict realism. In Nagybánya, he painted landscapes en plein air as well as portraits and nudes. In 1907, in collaboration with Pál Szinyei Merse (1845–1920) and József Rippl-Rónai (1861–1927), he founded the Circle of Hungarian Impressionists and Naturalists, a group of Hungarian artists studying the French Impressionist movement. He thus played a key role in spreading artistic modernism in Hungary. Károly Ferenczy was actively involved in the artistic life of his time. He organized his own solo exhibition in Budapest in 1903 and won numerous medals, notably gold medals at the Venice Biennale in 1905 and the Munich International Exhibition in 1913. Károly Ferenczy died at the age of 55 in Budapest. Here, two nude men are engaged in a fierce struggle. The figures are rendered through variations in light, tones, and colors. The flesh tones range from ochre to pink and brown. The contrast between the bodies and the nuanced blue background particularly highlights these bodies in motion. This work is a beautiful example of his style from the early 1910s. E.V