Perceived as the dominant artistic trend of the last third of the 19^th century, yet, still difficult to delineate, Naturalism raises a number of conceptual issues. Naturalism, perhaps the most significant trend in European painting in the 1880s and 1890s, was present simultaneously in other European countries only a few years after its emergence in France, and appeared in equal quality from Scotland to Russia and Spain to Hungary. In order to better understand the current of Naturalism, the research group “Realism and Naturalism in Hungary and in Europe” based at the Hungarian National Gallery is organizing a 2-day international conference.

Presentation

Perceived as the dominant artistic trend of the last third of the 19th century, yet, still difficult to delineate, Naturalism raises a number of conceptual issues. Naturalism, perhaps the most significant trend in European painting in the 1880s and 1890s, was present simultaneously in other European countries only a few years after its emergence in France, and appeared in equal quality from Scotland to Russia and Spain to Hungary. It was thus a mainstream trend to which, unlike for other contemporary artistic tendencies, the centre-periphery model did not apply. What lies behind this transnational, if not universal pictorial language, which resulted in an almost immeasurable quantity of artworks? 

In order to better understand the current of Naturalism, the research group "Realism and Naturalism in Hungary and in Europe" based at the Hungarian National Gallery is organizing a 2-day international conference.

The main sections of the conference are:

1. theoretical analysis of Naturalism, its sources and terminology
2. technique and education
3. networks (with a special regard to the international impact of Jules Bastien-Lepage and Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret)
4. case studies

Programme

Thursday, 16 June

9.30 Registration

9.50–10.00 Welcoming speeches (György Szücs and Orsolya Hessky, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest)

10:00–12:00 Theoretical Questions of Naturalist Painting

Chair: Károly Tóth (Central European Research Institute for Art History (KEMKI), Budapest)

• Zsófia Sepsey (Hungarian National Gallery / Eötvös Loránd University Budapest): The Origins and Key Figures of French Literary Naturalism (in Hungarian)
• Orsolya Hessky (Hungarian National Gallery): The Emergence of Naturalism in Contemporary Press (in Hungarian)
• György Szücs (Hungarian National Gallery): Béla Lázár on Naturalism (in Hungarian)
• Eszter Földi (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest): Different Interpretations of Naturalist Painting (in Hungarian)
• Agnieszka Kluczewska-Wojcik (Polish Insitute of World Art Studies, Warsaw): Painting as a Test of Truth. Stanisław Witkiewicz and debates on Naturalism in Poland (in French)

12:00–13:30 Lunch break

13.30–15.00 Tour in the collections of the Hungarian National Gallery

Coffee break

15.30–17.30 Questions of Technique

Chair: Csilla Csorba (Art Historian)

• Éva Somos (Restorer): The Naturalist Painting Technique (in Hungarian)
• Ágnes Kovács (Aesthete, Art Historian): Eternal Anachronism or the Phoenix Rising from the Ashes? The Munich Academy and the Teachableness of Arts (in Hungarian)
• Alain Bonnet (Université de Bourgogne): The Academy Struck by Naturalism (in French)
• Zsuzsa Farkas (Art Historian): The Effects of Photography on Visual Culture in the Period between 1880–1900 (in Hungarian)

Friday, 17 June

9:00–10:40 Case Studies

Chair: Réka Krasznai (Hungarian National Gallery)

• Dominique Lobstein (Art Historian): The Forming and Spread of Naturalism: The Case of Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret (in French)
• Benjamin Foudral (Musée et Pôle Courbet, Ornans): The “Little Bastiens” of Belgium: French Naturalism in “Young” Belgium (in French, online)
• Katarina Benova (Comenius University, Bratislava): Dominik Skutecký – From Venice to the Copper Mills (in English)
• András Zwickl (Hungarian National Gallery / Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design): Simon Hollósy and Naturalism (in Hungarian)

Coffee break

11.00–12.20 The Network of Naturalism

Chair: Enikő Róka (Budapest History Museum, Municipal Gallery)

• Luca Dsupin (Hungarian National Gallery): Goupil and His Clients: Munkácsy, Gérôme, Meissonier, Breton, Alma-Tadéma (in Hungarian)
• Ferenc Tóth (Museum of Fine Arts Budapest): International Naturalist Tendencies in Exhibitions and Public Collections in Budapest (in Hungarian)
• Anna Zsófia Kovács (Museum of Fine Arts Budapest): Jules Bastien-Lepage’s Retrospective Exhibition in 1885 at the École des Beaux-Arts and its Impact in the Artist’s Reception in Europe (in French)
• Marketa Theinhardt (Université Paris IV – Sorbonne): A Lost Generation? Czech Realist Painters in France (in French, online)

12:30–14:00 Lunch break

14.00–15.00 On Hungarian Naturalist Memorabilia: Who Do We Consider Naturalists and Why?

Chair: György Szücs (Hungarian National Gallery)

• Gábor Bellák (Hungarian National Gallery): Facing Reality – Naturalist Examples (in Hungarian)
• Adrienn Prágai (Hungarian National Gallery): Genres, Themes, Groups – Typification Experiments in the Naturalist Paintings of the Hungarian National Gallery (in Hungarian)
• Correferation: Réka Krasznai (Hungarian National Gallery): The Appearance of Hungarian Naturalist Painting at Representative Exhibitions Abroad at the Turn of the Century (in Hungarian)

Coffee break

15.30–17.30 Discussion and conclusions

Information and registration

In Hungarian, French and English language, with simultaneous interpretation in all three languages

The conference can be followed online (link below).

Please register for the conference using this form

Registration link for online viewers (streaming)

Password: 2022

Organizers

Concept by:

Eszter Földi, Orsolya Hessky, Réka Krasznai, András Zwickl

Members of the research group Realism and Naturalism in Hungary and Europe, Hungarian National Gallery, a programme supported by the NKFI Funds