KAROLY HOLLOS -HOLCZER
( 1873 - c. 1930 )
A young woman shown in strict profile against a flat, muted green ground, her head inclined towards a mass of chrysanthemums held at her breast. Her dark hair is drawn back into a low knot; a small gold hoop earring catches the light at her ear. She wears a soft dull-rose garment, described in a few broad, unmodelled strokes.
The contrast between the two halves of the picture is the whole point. The head and neck are painted with smooth academic finish — carefully blended flesh tones, a firm silhouette, no visible brushwork. The flowers, by contrast, are worked wet-in-wet with a loaded brush, the petals of the yellow, white and crimson-pink blooms built from short flicked strokes that stand proud of the surface.
The result sits between two worlds: Budapest academic portraiture in the head, something closer to plein-air handling in the bouquet. That is characteristic of Hungarian painting in the years around 1905–1915, when the Nagybánya lesson was being absorbed by artists trained in the older manner.
The signature form, surname first with the initial following, is the standard Hungarian convention.
Title: “Scenting Flowers”
Signature: Signed lower right
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: c. 23 x 16 inches unframed / 33 x 26 inches framed
Condition: Very good condition for age - unlined original canvas - a few tiny marks
Hungarian painter and graphic artist, born in 1873 at Csicsó.
Hollós-Holczer trained in Budapest, remaining in the Hungarian capital rather than following the well-worn route to Munich taken by many of his contemporaries. From 1904 he exhibited regularly at both of the country's principal venues: the Műcsarnok, the Palace of Art, which was the establishment showcase for Hungarian painting, and the Nemzeti Szalon, the National Salon, which was rather more receptive to newer tendencies. Appearing at both over a sustained period marks him as a recognised professional within the Budapest art world of the early twentieth century.
He worked during one of the richest periods in Hungarian art, the decades in which the Nagybánya colony transformed the national school and plein-air painting took hold. The double-barrelled name is characteristic of his generation — Holczer was the family name, Hollós a Magyarised addition, a common practice among Hungarian families in the years around 1900.
His date of death is not recorded in the standard references, and his work has seldom appeared on the international market, which makes surviving paintings by him comparatively scarce.
