This happens every time I come home.
Well . . . most of the time.
OK. It happens occasionally.
Úrfi kijátok or Gentleman’s Play by Ignác Roskovics (1883). Image from https://www.mutargy.com/festmeny-grafika/roskovics-ignac-1854-1915-urfi-kijatok-1883 (accessed 6/27/2022).
I hope Vicki will be happy to have me back after a boatload of Bible Land tours. She needs a sous-chef, after all, to help with Mama Z’s pies!
The painting above captures a moment of pure bliss—the kind of romance that sweeps you off your feet. The original is oil on cardboard, about the size of a sheet of typing paper, painted by Ignác Roskovics. A turn-of-the-century portrait artist, Roskovics was a master at capturing the people and nature of Eastern Europe.
This life-sized statue of Ignác Roskovics stands on the sidewalk outside outside the Intercontinental Hotel in Budapest. It was created by Ukrainian sculptor Mihály Kolodko and introduced in 2014.
I “met” Roskovics for the first time just outside my hotel in Budapest. He sat at his bronze easel, the picturesque Széchenyi Chain Bridge spanning the Danube before him and Buda Castle Hill stretching beyond. He seemed completely absorbed in his work—crayon in one hand, cigarette in the other, bag at his feet—paying no mind to the gawkers peeking over his shoulder on the promenade. He looked remarkably comfortable in bronze.
Serbian peasants from southern Hungary by Roskovics. Image from https://ww1.habsburger.net/en/media/ignaz-roskovics-serbian-peasants-southern-hungary-illustration-1891 (accessed 6/27/2022).
Born into a Greek Catholic family in a small Slovakian village, Roskovics lived and worked in Budapest from 1885 until his death in 1915. He painted the ordinary and the great alike. Those "in the know" connect him to the Munich Realism school, characterized by muted tones and a certain melancholy. You can see these formal roots in his religious work—the panels, frescoes, and altarpieces that undoubtedly paid the bills and preserved his legacy.
The Coronation of Saint Stephen (1900). Image from https://en.mng.hu/artworks/the-coronation-of-saint-stephen/ (accessed 6/27/2022).
However, it wasn’t his structured religious illustrations that made him a household name; it was his informal, pleasurable touch. You see it in the “homecoming” of Gentleman’s Play (1883), where feet arch and skirts fly in a blur of motion. It was this same energy in his painting A Little Red Apple (1890) that earned him a Grand Diploma from the Hungarian Society of Fine Arts and cemented his popularity through numerous copies.
Roskovics’ Menyasszonytánc or Bridal Dance (1888). See how the groom swings the face of his bride into the light? Lovely. You can almost hear the mandolin and the clapping. Even the kids are dancing! So fluid. So joyful!
Image from https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fc/7c/fa/fc7cfa7e2d0307d69f227a7b08b53660.jpg (accessed 6/27/2022).
I’ve studied A Little Red Apple but find it a bit stilted. I still prefer Gentleman’s Play (above) or his Bridal Dance (below).
Roskovics was a part of a wave of impressionism that danced away from the stiff lines of the realists.
That’s why I was delighted to find him out of studio and on the sidewalk in front of our hotel. This is where a good impressionist ought to be: out where the breeze and the light are always shifting. Out where the people are.
To capture the fleeting moments—and joys—of life, we must go outside.
Portrait of a man with cocked hat and cigarette (1884). Image from https://gallery.hungaricana.hu/hu/TortenelmiKepcsarnok/1000864/?list=eyJxdWVyeSI6ICJUSVBVUz0oRmVzdG1cdTAwZTlueSkifQ&img=0 (accessed 6/27/2022)
The signature of the artist. Image from https://www.kieselbach.hu/artist/roskovics_-ignac_4781(accessed 6/27/2022).
Bible Land Explorer is adding a new adventure to our offerings. We will be hosting an African safari in 2023. Between July 27 and August 5 we will return to the big game parks in Tanzania, including the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire. We will four-wheel drive and tent camp (or “glamp,” really!) in the Serengeti and follow the Great Migration of the wildebeest. It is one of the wonders of the natural world. This expedition is already half-full. If you are interested in signing on for a wild time, click here or contact BibleLandExplorer@gmail.com.
