DERKOVITS, Gyula
(1894, Szombathely - 1934, Budapest)

Bridge in Winter

1933
Oil, tempera aand silver powder paint on paper, 121 x 83 cm
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

The picture looks like a snapshot of Újpest-quay in winter. Elements of his previous pictures are present side by side in a new connection. An old subject matter is that of approach ramps to bridges and as such was first painted by Daumier in 1830 to depict a somewhat run-down area. In the late 1930s, socialist painters were also engaged in this subject matter. Derkovits painted a picture of a quay in winter 1927 for the first time, when he painted "Barrier" in several version, a direct predecessor to the picture. The soldier in this picture had been portrayed as a contrast between a policeman and a worker in the early 1930s. The figure of the protetarian mother with her child projects the monumetal "Proterarian Mother" to follow in a few months. Derkovits built the composition on contrasts with respect to psychology, content and colours. The state power armed with weapons is contrasted with the prolatarian mother in the picture.

The composition with several viewpoints is integrated into one viewpoint, in that of the spectatator. Derkovits breaks space around the proletarian family into pieces which he carries to extremes by painting a reddish-brown figure, a brownish background, a bluish-green horse and ships in cold colours and adds patches in definite contours to make the picture even more hectic.


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