Landscape with Figure

Provenance:
Private Collection, Hungary

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By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto
Notes:
Ödon Màrffy was a Hungarian painter and one of the members of the group of artists called The Eight. He is widely acknowledged as bringing Cubism, Fauvism and Expressionism to Hungary.

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In the years preceding the First World War there was a movement towards intellectualism in Budapest. Màrffy was one of the key figuresof the artistic mileu that was part of this intellectual atmosphere. Màrffy was inspired by the work of József Rippl-Rónai, who worked in the French tradition and had mastered the ability to create an intimate mood in his work. Rippl-Rónai was a major influence on Màrffy’s composition and colour palette and was indirectly the reason that Màrffy went to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts between 1902 and 1906. The time that Màrffy spent in Paris studying French art was significant, not only because it exposed him to French artists and ideas, but because of the connections that he made within the Hungarian intellectual community living in the city. It was in Paris that he met his future fellow members of The Eight (A Nyolcak), including Béla Czóbel, Róbert Berény and Bertalan Pór. By 1906, Màrffy was exhibiting at the Salon d’Automne with the Fauves. In March of 1907, Màrffy exhibited the works he completed in Paris at the Uránia art dealership, to rave reviews. Through contacts that he made at the show, Màrffy became one of the founding members of MIÉNK, the Circle of Hungarian Impressionists and Naturalists. Later, Károly Kernstok, the painter who led The Eight, hosted Màrffy at his home, where the artist continued to develop his artwork and his relationship with Fauvism.

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Màrffy and his fellow members of The Eight first exhibited their work as a group in 1909 at the Könyves Kálmán Salon in Budapest. Of the members of the Eight, Màrffy and Czóbel embodied the French tradition. Though the Eight only exhibited together three times, they strongly influenced, and were involved in, intellectual movements in Hungary.

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By the 1920s, Màrffy had become a renowned artist, who traveled often and exhibited regularly. He had considerable local influence, as he was one of the few artists of the Eight who had not emigrated after the fall of the Hungarian Democratic Republic in 1919. His artistic style at the time became more unique and accessible to middle-class audiences. His style moved towards being more decorative and his colour palette introduced soft pastel shades. Around the 1930s, he was mainly inspired by Italian landscapes.

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After the Second World War, Màrffy joined the European School, though his painterly style was at odds with many of the younger artists who were drawn to the Surrealists and abstract artists. In 1946, he received the National Gold Medal, and the same year he exhibited in a one-man show at the Ernst Museum.

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In Landscape with Figure, we can see how the artist has transitioned from his early vibrant palette to his later, more pastel palette in his use of swirling mauves, greens and yellows. His earlier constructivist influences have given way to an expressionist style and a soft, relaxed atmosphere.