Károly Ferenczy - Modernité hongroise

As well known in Hungary as he is little known in France, Károly Ferenczy (1862–1917) is a major figure of modernity in Central Europe. His deeply singular œuvre establishes him as one of the great painters at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

With this first French retrospective, the Petit Palais seeks to bring his fundamental originality to light. Neither naturalist, nor symbolist, nor impressionist, nor a member of the Nabis, but a little of all of these at once, he embodies the cosmopolitanism of the fin de siècle in the full breadth of his culture. A founding member of an artists’ colony set in the heart of the Hungarian countryside, Ferenczy made plein air painting one of his most emblematic practices. He sought in nature the expression of a syncretic spirituality. Under his brush, the sun often appears as a central protagonist in landscapes of unparalleled light.

With nearly 140 works, the exhibition highlights the multiple facets of the artist’s approach—landscapes, portraits, family scenes, biblical subjects, nudes and caricatures—and reveals Károly Ferenczy’s fundamental role in the emergence of a distinctly modern school of art in Hungary. The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, and the Hungarian National Gallery.