LECHNER A CREATIVE GENIUS JÓZSEF SISA LECHNER A CREATIVE GENIUS MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS / INSTITUTE OF ART HISTORY, RESEARCH CENTRE FOR THE HUmaNITIES, HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES BUDAPEST, 2014 EXHIBITION CATALOGUE Project manager The catalogue is a joint publication THE MUSEUM OF AppLIED CONTENTS ZSOMBOR JÉKELY of the Museum of Applied Arts, ARTS wishes to express its Budapest and of the Institute gratitude to the following Chief scientific advisor of Art History, Research Centre institutions and persons for lending for the Humanities, Hungarian to the exhibition their artworks Academy of Sciences 8 LECHNER, A CREATIVE GENIUS JÓZSEF SISA Editor Budapest City Archives Scientific advisory board JÓZSEF SISA NOTES Budapest History Museum, 34 TAMÁS CSÁKI English translation by Kiscell Museum ANDRÁS HADIK STepHEN KANE Budapest History Museum, 35 BIBLIOGRAPHY MAGDOLNA LICHNER Copy editor Metropolitan Gallery PÁL RITOÓK KLÁRA SzeGZÁRDY- Budapest – Kőbánya, 37 LECHNER’S DRAWINGS, CSENGERY Szent László Parish Project assistant ATTILA BRUNNER Design Ferenc Hopp Museum DUOTONE RepROSTÚDIÓ of Eastern Asiatic Arts PLANS AND BUIldINGS Design and installation Photos Geological and Geophysical ZOBOKi–DeMETER GeLLÉRT ÁMENT Institute of Hungary 143 APPENDIX & TÁRSAIK ÉpÍTÉSZIRODA PÉTER HÁMORI Gyula Forster National Centre for Cultural Heritage Management DOBOZDA MűTEREM MARTIN DRAHOVSKÝ 144 ABBREVIATIONS JÓZSEF SISA Hungarian Museum of Exhibition graphics ÁGNES SOLTÉSZ-HARANGHY Architecture VINCE SOLTÉSZ LIST OF ORIGINAL WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION LeVENTE SIPOS Hungarian National Museum 145 KRISZTINA SZALKA VIRÁG SzABÓ SÁRA ZAGYVAI Hungarian University of Fine Arts, and the photographers of the Library 151 PHOTO CREDITS Museum education lending institutions Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs KATALIN FÁYKISS Kecskemét Municipality Marketing and communication Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library ZSOLT KOREN © Museum of Applied Arts, Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian ERIKA SCHNEIDER Budapest National Gallery ZOLTÁN VERMES Institute of Art History, Research National Széchényi Library Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Postal Museum Cover photograph Rippl-Rónai Museum, Kaposvár THE DOME OF THE MUSEUM The Hungarian National Archives OF AppLIED ARTS, – National Archives of Hungary photo by Gellért Áment On p. 6–7: Planning permission The Hungarian National Archives drawing for Kecskemét City Hall, – Archives of Bács-Kiskun County transversal section The Hungarian National Archives – Archives of Baranya County Sponsor of the exhibition ISBN 978–615–5217–15–9 The Hungarian National Archives MAGYAR NeMzeTI BANK The Museum of Applied Arts is maintained by the Ministry – Archives of Csongrád County of Human Resources Zita Huszthy Printed and bound by Boldizsár Szmrecsányi ADUPRINT NYOMDA KFT. Printing supervised by ZOLTÁN TÓTH 6 7 Portrait of Ödön Lechner Crayon drawing by Oszkár Glatz, around 1900 century breakthroughs in European architecture as the use of time, but this did not prevent a vibrant cultural life, and may bare brickwork and architectural ceramics, polychromy, Orien- in a sense have nurtured it. talism, ornamentation, the discovery of folk traditions, the In the nineteenth century, Hungarian culture was con- search for a national mythology, and the application of the new cerned with closing the gap with the rest of Europe, and the technologies of iron, steel and reinforced concrete. For many momentum for this was accelerated after 1867 by the emerg- people, Lechner’s œuvre represented, at a Hungarian level, a re- ing Hungarian state structure, and the new or reinvigorated flection of national ambitions, the artistic and intellectual cultural and educational institutions. Unlike the eighteenth emancipation of the country, and modernisation. century, when Hungary had been culturally subsumed by the Hungary underwent unprecedented political and cultural Habsburg Empire, and art, including architecture, had fol- upheaval in the nineteenth century. At the end of the seven- lowed the example of Vienna or other western centres of the teenth century, following violent and destructive wars against empire, the nineteenth century saw multiple attempts at the the Ottomans, the entire country had come under Habsburg creation of an independent Hungarian style. Due to histori- rule. The eighteenth century marked a period of peaceful re- cal traditions and Hungary’s firm place in central Europe, construction within the Empire. By the middle of the nine- however, this was difficult to implement, especially in archi- Ödön Lechner teenth century, however, there was a powerful upsurge in na- tecture, which remained dominated in virtually every coun- in his youth tional awakening and in demands for modernisation, which try by the great, universal European styles up until the turn Photograph, culminated in the Revolution of 1848–49, the fight for lib- of the century. Circumstances fostering substantial change around 1866 eration from the Habsburgs. The freedom fight was quelled only came about in the late nineteenth and early twentieth by the Austrians with Russian assistance, and followed by centuries, when the generation of great pioneers emerged in also evident at school. Several of his siblings also exhibited ar- retribution and neo-absolutist governance. Hungarians re- the nations of Europe, including Ödön Lechner in Hungary. tistic tendencies in a range of fields. sponded to this oppression with passive resistance. This, According to tradition, the Lechner family, which boasted The young Lecher graduated from the “modern school” along with subsequent political events – the military defeat its own coat of arms, originated from Bavaria. The direct ances- (Reáltanoda) in Pest, and then enrolled at the polytechnic LECHNER of Austria, and the formation of a unified Germany – forced tors of the architect had belonged to the intellectual circles of in Buda, which he attended for just a year, architecture train- the ruler, Franz Joseph, to make a deal. The Compromise was Pest. His grandfather, János Nepomuki Lechner the Elder, had ing being still in its infancy; as sometimes happened, the signed in 1867, establishing the dualistic Austro-Hungarian been a leading officer for the “Beautification Committee”, the teacher at the polytechnic, Antal Szkalnitzky (1836–1878), A CREATIVE Monarchy. Under the new state structure, Hungary – which supreme architectural authority in the city. János’s son, János persuaded Ödön Lechner and two other students, Alajos made up around half of the Monarchy – enjoyed autonomy Nepomuki Lechner the Younger, was a lawyer in the city’s Hauszmann (1847–1926) and Gyula Pártos (Punczmann) over its internal affairs, and equal rights with Austria. De- civil service. He quit after the Revolution, when the oppressive (1844/45–1916), to continue their studies after 1866 at the ENIUS cades of rapid development ensued, and Hungary began to Habsburg regime took over, and then lived primarily from the Bauakademie in Berlin.3 Szkalnitzky was familiar with the close the economic and cultural gap with the western half of brickworks he had inherited. His was a symbolic gesture: the Berlin architectural academy, founded on the traditions of G the Monarchy, and with Western Europe in general. In 1873, family was proudly patriotic, and this manifested itself in other Karl Friedrich Schinkel, for he had been the first Hungarian Ödön Lechner (1845–1914), one of the greatest exponents of three towns were united to form Budapest, which soon grew ways as well. The young Ödön was brought up in this atmos- to study architecture there. Lechner and his associates were Hungarian architecture, and certainly its most original, de- into a truly European metropolis. In 1896, the nation rev- phere, and he was politically and intellectually a “48-er” after taught by Johann Strack, Franz Adler, Richard Lucae and, serves a prominent position in the international canon of ex- elled in its Millennium celebrations, marking a thousand the Compromise, and would remain so till his dying day. This last but not least, Carl Bötticher, the noted theoretician, who traordinary talents from the turn of the nineteenth and twenti- years since Hungary was established. was probably a powerful influence on the development of his was their teacher of ornamentation and architectural draw- eth centuries.1 He is regarded by many as the creator of the Although the Compromise was successful, the legacy of art, and a motivation behind his search for a “Hungarian lan- ing. Bötticher’s work Die Tektonik der Hellenen (1844–1852) Hungarian national style, the master of the Secession, one of 1848 lived on in Hungarian political and intellectual life: guage of form” – even if his work was more complex than this had a great impact on his contemporaries, Lechner included. the fathers of modern architecture, and even the Hungarian many regarded the quelling of the Revolution as an insult, and – and the urge to create a Hungarian style would form the Part of Bötticher’s theory was the distinction between the Gaudí. There is truth in all these statements, but the reality is refused to accept sharing statehood with Austria. Hungarian framework of his constantly regenerating art. The family brick- Kernform (the core form – the architectural structure) and far more complex. Lechner’s work progressed gradually and or- society was split for decades between the “48-ers” and the “67- works also played an important, though different role in shap- the Kunstform (the art form – decoration), which presaged