Sleeping Woman with a Black Vase – A long-lost painting returns

The story of the painting entitled Sleeping Woman with a Black Vase by renowned Hungarian avant-garde painter Róbert Berényi (1887-1953) could definitely be made into a movie. And it was actually thanks to Hollywood that this work of art was rediscovered, restored and exhibited at Virág Judit Art Gallery at the end of November 2014.

The painting is dated between 1924-28 and all that was left of it was a black-and-white reproduction made for an exhibition in 1928. Last Christmas, however, a painting caught Gergely Barki’s eye while watching the movie Stuart Little with his daughter. The art historian couldn’t believe his eyes: there was the long-lost painting, hanging above the fireplace in a children’s movie! After Christmas Barki immediately started the hunt for the work of art, which had last been exhibited at the Ernst Museum, Budapest in 1928.

Letters to Sony Pictures, the film director and the stage designer revealed that the painting was no longer in the possession of the studio. Barki didn’t give up and after several weeks of investigation he managed to contact the stage designer’s assistant, who had originally bought the painting for the set. Lisa Sessions was looking for a suitable painting and bought one by an “unknown artist” from an art dealer in Pasadena, California. It turned out that she liked the painting so much she tried to buy it after they finished shooting the film. However, the studio wanted to keep it in case a sequel to the movie was to be made, and a couple of years later they lent it for the shooting of a soap opera. At that point everybody thought it was just a copy and not worth much.

Luckily, an old colleague of Lisa’s managed to trace the painting down at the studio and she bought it half-price – a real bargain, considering now it’s worth tens of millions of HUF. When another friend of Lisa’s came to Budapest and saw another painting by Berényi, the famous Woman Playing the Violoncello, she recognized the similarities between the two works of art. It’s not difficult to spot them, as the model for both was the painter’s second wife, Eta Breuer. These two paintings were exhibited along with another work by Berényi, the Sleeping Woman with a Fox at Virág Judit Art Gallery until the middle of December.

The majority of Berényi’s works is on display in the National Gallery, with several paintings exhibited in museums in Pécs and Székesfehérvár. Nobody knows how the Sleeping Woman with a Black Vase ended up in the United States, so there is a 70-year-gap in the painting’s history. But the last chapter is very exciting: Barki met Lisa in a Washington park and had to borrow a screwdriver from a hot dog seller in order to take the frame off. And, as he hoped, he found the stamp of the Munkácsy Guild on the back of the painting, certifying that was the original painting that had been exhibited in 1928.

1. The painting Sleeping Woman with a Black Vase was created by a famous Hungarian artist.
2. Gergely Barki discovered the painting while watching a documentary.
3. The painting was last shown in an exhibition in Budapest in 1928.
4. Lisa Sessions initially bought the painting from a well-known artist.
5. The painting was thought to be a copy for many years.
6. Barki found a stamp on the back of the painting that confirmed its authenticity.
7. The majority of Berényi’s works are displayed in a private collection.

Correct Answers:

1 – True – The text states that the painting was created by renowned Hungarian avant-garde painter Róbert Berényi.

2 – False – The text mentions that Barki discovered the painting while watching the movie Stuart Little, not a documentary.

3 – True – The text indicates that the painting was last exhibited at the Ernst Museum in Budapest in 1928.

4 – False – The text states that Lisa bought the painting from an art dealer and referred to it as being by an “unknown artist.”

5 – True – The text explains that many believed it was just a copy and not worth much for years.

6 – True – The text mentions that Barki found the stamp of the Munkácsy Guild on the back of the painting, certifying its authenticity.

7 – False – The text states that the majority of Berényi’s works are on display in the National Gallery, not a private collection.

Beginnings

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón was born on July 6, 1907, in Coyoacán, Mexico. She was the 3rd of four daughters born to her parents, photographer Guillermo Kahlo and Matilde Calderón y González. Originally from Germany, Guillermo immigrated to Mexico in 1891.

Illness and Education

Frida contracted polio aged 6 which affected her right leg, its growth became stunted. This led to social isolation and she developed an introverted personality. After troubled early schooling – she was often bullied – she was enrolled in the prestigious National Preparatory School in Mexico City with the hopes of becoming a doctor but with no aspirations to be an artist yet. She was one of only 35 girls out of 2,000 pupils there.

She became a member of a political group with socialist-nationalist ideas who devoted themselves intensively to literature. Thanks to the Mural Movement in Mexico in which murals were painted on public buildings she met the famous mural artist Diego Rivera who was later to become her husband.

She changed her date of birth to coincide with the 1910 Mexican Revolution which she adored.

She enjoyed art from an early age and learnt to draw from her father’s friend, printmaker Fernando Fernández and filled several notebooks with sketches.

The Accident

In 1925 she had an accident in a bus which collided with a tram  – a handrail impaled her pelvis and she had broken ribs and legs – leaving her emotionally and physically scarred for life. Her physical injuries were life-threatening, and she was lucky to survive. She required months of hospital recovery.

In 1926, during her convalescence, she painted her first self-portrait, the beginning of a long series in which she charted the events of her life and her emotional reactions to them.

Marriage

In 1928 a mutual friend introduced Rivera again to Frida, shortly after the break-up of his marriage. Sparks evidently flew and they were married the next March. Her father disapproved but eventually gave his blessing to her marrying ‘this elephant’, because he was wealthy enough to pay for her many surgeries her life would require. Diego was a large and not conventionally attractive man, but his personality was appealing because of his non-macho sensitive side in contrast to the Mexican standard. Quoting Frida Kahlo: “I suffered two grave accidents in my life. One in which a streetcar knocked me down… The other accident is Diego.” Diego was twenty years her senior and she called him her baby.

Mexico to America: Artistic Inspiration

Owing to the Mexican regime, times were tough for leftist thinkers – so Diego did not seem to have a bright future in Mexico, but his reputation had proceeded him to the USA which was where the couple went.

1931 found them in New York for a retrospective exhibition of Modern Art. Frida at the time was regarded as nothing more than Diego’s charming wife.

During a commission Diego painted in Detroit, Frida suffered a miscarriage and while recovering she painted a watershed piece – Miscarriage in Detroit – which was the start of the starkly honest self- portraits, she became known for. The size was small and known as retablos based on religious iconography found in Mexican churches. Except inside was not a saint but Frida herself. Diego described her work as having no precedent in the history of art.

After Detroit, a mural commission by the Capitalist Rockefeller Centre brought them to New York where a scandal ensued over Diego’s refusal to remove a Communist figure he had inserted. The mural was eventually destroyed by a patron.

Troubled Relationship and Triumphant Shows         

By 1935 they had returned to Mexico where Diego cut Frida to the quick by having an affair with her younger sister Cristina. In a reaction, Frida embarked on her own series of affairs which was a pattern that lasted their lifetime. Notably, the affair was with Leon Trotsky that time who was given asylum by the Mexican government after a petition by the couple, as he fled from Stalin’s clutches.

The visiting French Surrealist André Breton also became infatuated with not only the alluring Frida – though she rejected his advances -, but her art, namely her most ‘Surrealist’ painting What the Water Gave Me and initiated her first major exhibition in New York at the Julian Levy Gallery in 1938. She sold half her paintings and Breton promised to follow it up with a show in Paris, but he obviously didn’t bother to keep to his promise. Another Surrealist Marcel Duchamp came to her rescue, and the show opened six weeks later than scheduled.

The experience left her with a rather bitter taste in her mouth and eventually, she renounced Surrealism as a bunch of lunatics and disassociated her own art from it.

1940 began with the couple’s divorce under mysterious circumstances. The period was an emotionally torn but a productive episode for her – she painted Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair in a defiant response to Diego’s request for a divorce, in which she cut off her hair in self-punishment, perhaps for her failings.

Reunion and Recognition

The first assassination attempt on Trotsky’s life, led Rivera to move to San Francisco prudently avoiding trouble. Frida followed him there and they soon remarried.

From 1944 onwards, the financial support and protection offered by Diego became invaluable since her deteriorating health required various surgeries which depleted her own unstable wealth. Her spine needed to be re-alignedand her leg also needed treatment, though some question whether she went to extreme lengths in pursuing multiple surgeries to distract Diego from his affairs. A stark painting from this time is The Broken Column which poignantly shows her physical and spiritual suffering like Christ, with a loincloth concealing her pelvic region suggesting her spirit was reaching for a higher realm than her physical reality. Physically she must have felt like she was disintegrating and becoming ever more fragile – this work has been referred to as Magic Realism, a popular movement at the time with writers like Gabriel García Márquez.

“Being the wife of Diego is the most marvellous thing in the world…. I let him play matrimony with other women. Diego is not anybody’s husband and never will be, but he is a great comrade.”

The war years were also spent together in a place built by the couple in Mexico called Anahuacalli which contained his collection of pre-Columbian idols and gave them a grounding they referred to as the ‘House of the Gods’. She painted a spiritually harmonious and celebrated picture calledRoots about this.

In 1946 her reputation was continually growing. She was invited to exhibit in Boston, was awarded a prize and began teaching at La Esmeralda Art School in Mexico. Her Communist leanings also reached a fever pitch, though Diego had been expelled from the party for his associations with Trotsky.

Deterioration

By 1953, the combinatorial effects of pain, pain-killing drugs, and natural decline warped her vision and coordination so much that she was unable to paint well. However, her first solo exhibition was offered to her on home soil in Mexico and, against her doctor’s advice, she attended. She had gangrene in her leg and was transported by ambulance and installed as almost a piece of live art herself in a bed at the show which was a triumph.

Shortly after the leg had to be amputated to the knee and this blow left her psychologically damaged, although she learnt to walk again with the help of a prosthetic limb and she even danced at some parties. The end when it came was in her sleep after writing in her diary –“’I hope the end is joyful – and I hope never to come back – Frida.” Officially recorded as an embolism, many believed it to be suicide.  She was an unforgettable personality who kept dancing through her life like a ballerina in a storm.

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer’s day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they’ll listen now

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue

Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they’ll listen now
For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight

On that starry, starry night

You took your life, as lovers often do
But I could’ve told you Vincent
This world was never meant for
One as beautiful as you

Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can’t forget

Like the strangers that you’ve met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they’re not listening still
Perhaps they never will
 

Vincent Van Gogh was born in the Netherlands in 1853. He started to work when he was 15. He tried a lot of jobs; he worked as an art dealer, a teacher and a bookseller before he became an artist. He had one brother, whose name was Theo. Theo was an art dealer in Paris. Vincent and Theo were very close and they wrote many letters to each other. Vincent wrote over 700 letters to his brother. Theo tried to help him to sell his paintings. But Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings were darker than what was popular among artists in Paris at the time. People didn’t understand his art and didn’t buy his pictures. Van Gogh had no money, no food, no friends. In 1886 he moved to Paris. In Paris he met many famous painters. Paul Gauguin was one of them. They became friends and started to live together. They lived in the Yellow House in southern France for two months. One day Gauguin left and in his anger, Van Gogh cut off his ear. He was mentally ill and was in the hospital for a long time.  When he became ill, Theo found the best doctors for him. Van Gogh painted over 200 pictures in the hospital, including Starry Night. Today Starry Night is one of his most famous paintings. His life ended sadly in 1890. He shot himself in the chest and died at the young age of 37.  His brother, Theo died three months later. Their gravestones are next to each other and people usually put sunflowers on his grave.

Van Gogh sold only one painting in his life. He died a poor, lonely artist. Now his paintings cost millions of dollars and people around the world can see his paintings in the most famous museums. The biggest Van Gogh Museum is in Holland.

Her tricky smile and timeless allure have inspired academic study and artistic emulation for more than five centuries. But the story of this perplexing portrait is even richer than it looks.

1. “MONA LISA” IS NOT HER NAME.

The painting’s subject is Lisa Gherardini, whose wealthy—and presumably adoring—husband Francesco Del Giocondo commissioned the work. This explains the less prevalent title for this painting, La Gioconda. The name Mona Lisa (or Monna Lisa, as the Italians prefer) roughly translates to “My Lady Lisa.”

2. NAPOLEON CRUSHED HARDON HER, THEN HER DESCENDANT .

The French emperor once had Mona Lisa hanging in his bedroom, where he’d presumably revel in her beauty for untold hours. It’s said his fascination with the painting inspired his affection for a pretty Italian named Teresa Guadagni, who was actually a descendant of Lisa Gherardini.

3. SHE’S SMALLER THAN YOU MIGHT THINK.

Mona Lisa’s influence in culture is massive, but the oil-on-wood panel painting measures just 30 by 21 inches and weighs 18 pounds.

4. HER EYEBROWS ARE A MATTER OF DEBATE.

Some claim the subject’s lack of eyebrows is representative of high-class fashion of the time. Others insist her AWOL eyebrows are proof that Mona Lisa is an unfinished masterpiece. But in 2007 ultra detailed digital scans of the painting revealed da Vinci had painted on eyebrows and bolder eyelashes. Both had simply faded over time or had fallen victim to years of restoration work.

5. SHE’S BROKEN A LOT OF HEARTS.

The portrait was first put on public display in the Louvre in 1815, inspiring admiration, as a string of “suitors bearingflowers, poems and impassioned notes climbed the grand staircase of the Louvre to gaze into her ‘limpid and burning eyes.’”

“Mona Lisa often made men do strange things,” R. A. Scotti wrote in Vanished Smile, “There were more than one million artworks in the Louvre collection; she alone received her own mail.” The painting actually has its own mailbox at the Louvre because of all the love letters its subject receives.

6. MEN HAVE DIED FROM LOVING HER.

In 1852, an artist named Luc Maspero threw himself from the fourth floor of a Parisian hotel, leaving a suicide note that read: “For years I have grappled desperately with her smile. I prefer to die.” Then in 1910, one enamoured fan came before her solely to shoot himself as he looked upon her.

7. IT’S LITERALLY PRICELESS.

In the 1960s, the painting went on a tour where it was given an insurance valuation of $100 million. But the policy was never taken out because the premiums were more than the cost of the best security.

8. THE PAINTING SITS IN THE WORLD’S PRETTIEST PRISON.

Mona Lisa gets her own room at the Louvre, one that is climate controlled to keep her in the ideal environment. Additionally, the work is encased in bulletproof glass to prevent threat and injury.

9. SHE’S BEEN ATTACKED!

If you look closely at the subject’s left elbow, you might notice the damage done by Ugo Ungaza Villegas, a Bolivian who chucked a rock at the portrait in 1956. A few months before, another art attacker pitched acid at the painting, which hit the lower section. These attacks inspired the bulletproof glass, which in 2009 successfully rebuffed a souvenir mug hurled by an enraged Russian tourist who’d been denied French citizenship.

10. FRANCE MOURNED EN MASSE WHEN SHE WENT MISSING.

In 1911, Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. The New York Times retroactively compared the public display of grief to that seen in the wake of Princess Diana’s death in 1997. Thousands poured into the Louvre to stare in shock at the blank wall where she once hung and leave flowers, notes, and other remembrances.

11. PABLO PICASSO WAS A SUSPECT IN THE CAPER.

Because he’d been caught buying stolen Louvre pieces before, Picasso was brought in for questioning. But the true thief would not be caught until 1913.

Louvre employee Vincenzo Perugia was a proud Italian nationalist who smuggled the painting out under his smock because he felt it belonged to his and da Vinci’s homeland, not France. After hiding it for two years, Perugia was busted trying to sell Mona Lisa to a Florence art dealer. However, he did briefly get his wish. Upon her recovery, Mona Lisa toured Italy before returning to Paris.

12. SUSPICIONS AROSE THAT THE HEIST WASN’T A ONE-MAN JOB.

Though Perugia was the only one prosecuted for the crime, it’s unlikely he acted alone. At the time of the theft, Mona Lisa was encased in a heavy wood backing and glass case that would have weighed almost 200 pounds, making it highly unlikely Perugia could have pulled her down from the wall on his own.

Years later, a man who called himself Marquis of the Vale of Hell confessed to American reporter Karl Decker that he was the true mastermind behind the theft of Mona Lisa. On the condition his story be kept secret until his death, he revealed Perugia was one of three men paid handsomely to snatch her. This way, the Marquis could sell multiple forgeries of the masterpiece to collectors for exorbitant sums. The beauty of the scam was that each buyer would believe they owned the authentic missing Mona Lisa.  Whether the Marquis was telling the truth or not is still a hotly debated topic around the theft.

13. HER RETURN INSPIRED A FASHION TREND.

In her book Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered, journalist Dianne Hales writes, “Society women adopted the ‘La Joconde look’ [named for the painting’s French title], dusting yellow powder on their faces and necks to suggest her golden complexion and immobilizing their facial muscles to mimic her smile. In Parisian cabarets, dancers dressed as La Joconde performed a saucy can-can…. Something beyond the painting’s wild popularity had changed. The Mona Lisa had left the Louvre a work of art; she returned as a public property, the first mass art icon.”

14. HER SMILE DOESN’T CHANGE, BUT YOUR MINDSET DOES.

That is-she-or-isn’t-she smile has long fascinated artists and historians. But in 2000, Harvard neuroscientist Dr. Margaret Livingstone applied a scientific method to why Mona Lisa’s smile seems to shift. It’s all about where your focus is, and how your brain responds.

Ismételjünk át néhány információt a képről! Válaszolj a kérdésekre magyarul!

1. Ki adott megbízást a Mona Lisa elkészítésére?

2. Mit tett Napóleon a festménnyel?

3. Milyen anyagra festették?

4. Mi történt a szemöldökével?

5. Miben egyedülálló a Louvre műalkotásai között?

6. Miért „életveszélyes”?

7. Miért nem kötöttek rá biztosítást a hatvanas években?

8. Hogyan védik jelenleg?

9. Milyen támadást sikerült ezzel meghiúsítani?

10. Milyen reakciót váltott ki az emberekből az eltűnése?

11. Milyen motívumai voltak a tolvajnak?

12. Mi nehezítette meg az elkövetést?

13. Milyen divatot indított el a festmény visszatérése?

14. Mit vizsgáltak tudományosan vele kapcsolatban?

Válaszok:

1. A képen látható hölgy férje.

2. A hálószobájában tartotta és órákon át nézte.

3. Fára

4. Elhalványult az idők és a restaurációk során.

5. Egyedül neki van külön postaládája.

6. Mert többen is öngyilkosok lettek szerelmi bánatukban miatta.

7. Mert drágább lett volna, mint a legszigorúbb biztonsági intézkedések.

8. Golyóálló üveg mögött tartják.

9. Egy bögrét vágott hozzá egy turista.

10. Gyászolták – az üres helyéhez virágokat, gyászfeliratokat, emléktárgyakat vittek.

11. Olaszországba akarta vinni, mert úgy érezte, hogy ott a helye.

12. Az, hogy a festménynek nehéz fa hátlapja és üveg tokja volt.

13. A nők sárga port szórtak az arcukra és a nyakukra, hogy az arcszínét utánozzák és a mosolyát is próbálták utánozni.

14. Azt, hogy miért tűnik úgy, mintha a mosolya változna.