KÖRÖSFŐI-KRIESCH, Aladár
(1863, Budapest - 1920, Budapest)

All Souls' Day

1910
Oil on canvas, 51,5 x 72,5 cm
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

Major events of human life, e.g. birth, love and death, in a symbolic form belonged to the popular subject matters of art nouveau at the turn of the century, as this subject matter was unusual from the symbolism of art nouveau with a tendency towards melancholy. It is not by chance that Alaldár Körösfői-Kriesch with moral and religious ideas painted some pictures on this subject-matter. The two figures standing in the picture are suggestive of the pain of mortality, mortality, which cannot be helped, while the female figures sitting as if sibyls, symbolize belief in immortality. By contrasting the two groups, the artist suggests that life and death cannot be separated. The message of the picture is supported by colours reduced to dark ones only, by emphasizing figures with few lines, and mysticity of light effects. "All Souls' Days" has a counterpart entitled "All Saints' Day" (1914). The symbolism of Körösfői's pictures was akin to Gulácsy's mystic, dreamlike world.


Please send your comments, sign our guestbook and send a postcard.
Created and maintained by Emil Krén and Dániel Marx; sponsored by the T-Systems Hungary Ltd.