Lajos Petri

Lajos Petri: Monument of the Transylvanian Hussar Regiment No. 2 in the Castle District of Buda

Lajos Petri's grave on the Farkasréti temető in Budapest

Lajos Petri (until 1928 Lajos Pick ; born June 8, 1884 in Szeged , Hungary , † August 26, 1963 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian sculptor .

biography

Lajos Petri's family owned the Hungarian Pick sausage factory , which was founded by Márk Pick in 1869. After Petri had passed the Matura , he began to study law in Budapest and attended the lectures of the art historian and art critic Gyula Pasteiner (1846–1924), the philosopher, aesthetes and theater critic Bernát Alexander (1850–1927) and the literary historian Gusztáv Heinrich ( 1845-1922). During this time he was more interested in sports than in art. After passing two basic exams, he continued the third year of his law studies in Berlin . There he attended the lectures of du Bois-Reymond and the Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin (1864–1945).

A trip to the Netherlands, especially to get to know Rembrandt's paintings, increased his interest in art. However, as he had promised his mother, he had to finish his law degree first. In May 1907 he received his doctorate; in the same week the widow of the painter Sándor Bihari (1855-1906) brought him to the studio of Ede Telcs ( Eduard Teltsch , 1872-1948) and Pick became his pupil. He learned from him that one should look at art with respect, disregard the inferior means of effect and recognize the dishonesty of kitsch. Leaving Telcs' studio, Petri traveled to Brussels, where he worked in his own studio until 1922, with some interruptions due to the First World War . There he was often visited by the Belgian sculptors Jules Lagae (1862-1931) and Égide Rombeaux (1865-1942).

In Brussels, Petri created the figurative sculptures Am Start (Startoló) , Das Leben (Élet) , and Das Tanzende Mädchen , which was the most modern Hungarian sculpture at the time (1911).

Later years

A long hiatus followed these productive years because of World War I, and when Petri started working again in Hungary in 1922, he felt that his new and even his best works, such as Sunrise (Napfelkelte) and Sadness (Bánat) , were in in terms of monumentality and composition compared with the times in Brussels meant a step backwards. Progress - as he himself thought - was only represented by the monument of the Transylvanian Hussar Regiment No. 2 in the Buda Castle district and the grave monument of Otto Bláthy.

During the period between 1925 and 1945, his energy was completely tied up by participating in the tenders. He viewed these state tenders as the greatest condemnation of the life of a Hungarian sculptor of that time. 80 to 100 artists sent their works for evaluation, the creation of which had taken a lot of time and money. However, it often happened that the dedicated expenses and efforts of the artist were ignored, not even the commission was placed; or that the works were not judged from an artistic point of view. Regular participation exhausted the strength of the artists, but they had to apply, because this was the only way for those who did not belong to the establishment to get a larger contract. Petri claims to have participated in about thirty tenders, and only the monument to the Transylvanian Hussar Regiment No. 2 he was able to realize in 1935. From then on, his applications were rejected and he was only able to use his productivity on a theoretical level. He gave lectures such as B. The dispute between the artist and the public , The role of art criticism and beauty in new art, and The real face of Michelangelo . His publications were published in the monthly Élet és Tudomány (German about "Life and Science"), which was founded by Nobel Prize winner Albert Szent-Györgyi in 1949: From clay models to bronze statues ; How sport is depicted in art , How is a bronze statue made? His article on monumentality appeared in the magazine Műterem (“Atelier”) . Le Musée du Soir published his study on the Hungarian poet Gyula Juhász (1883–1937).

Lajos Petri was best known for his portraits. After the Second World War he received several orders from the Hungarian state. In 1960 an exhibition of his life's work took place in the National Salon in Budapest .

Quote (Peter about the portrait)

“The resemblance of the portrait to the model is not an easy thing; and it cannot be achieved through the objectivity of the most precious observation. What you need is understanding and love; Interest and compassion; an almost full identification with the thoughts and feelings of the model. […] Here I have to mention that there is a lot of confusion about the beauty of the model and the beauty of the portrait. These two are often confused with each other. The sculptor can create a kitsch about a beautiful young girl, and he can also create a masterpiece about an old woman who is just not beautiful. I have no words to condemn everything that is mere embellishment, pure cosmetics, that is simply taken over from fashion, that is only humiliation to the level of a serial beauty, that is merely the humiliating schematization of a fashion type. On the other hand, the greatest value is the sharpening of the characteristics of a face and head; everything that is interesting about it; the essential character traits to be portrayed; everything that serves to emphasize individuality. Those who can only perceive the beauty of the model do not recognize precisely those things that can only be transmitted from art to our world of knowledge. "(Petri 1960: 9-10)

Works (selection)

The list of sculptures by Lajos Petri includes that the monument to the Transylvanian Hussar Regiment No. 2 (Az erdélyi 2-es huszárok hősi emlékműve) in the Castle District in Buda is not indicated on pages 15-18, although it is on pages 10– 11 is mentioned. The source of the list is Petri Lajos szobrászművész gyűjteményes kiállítása , published by Nemzeti Szalon in 1960 for the exhibition of Lajos Petri in Műcsarnok in Budapest in 1960.

• Zoltán Kodály (1908, Gypsum)
• Bathing girl, Fürdőző leány (1909, bronze)
• Young girl, Fiatal leány, "Mary" (1909, marble)
• Portrait of Gyula Juhász (1883–1937), Hungarian poet (1909, Stein, Szeged)
• Nude (1910, plaster)
• At the start, Startoló (1910, bronze)
• Life, Élet (1912, plaster)
• Miss GW (1912, plaster)
• Melisande (1914, bronze)
• Torso (1914, bronze)
• Dancing girl, Táncoló lány (1911, bronze)
• Portrait of Lajos Károlyi (1915, bronze)
• Portrait of a Young Girl (1916, plaster)
• The Little Rider (1917, plaster)
• Portrait of Mrs. Borsay (1917, marble)
• Nun, Apáca (1918, marble)
• Portrait of Margit Kaffka (1880–1918) Hungarian writer, poet, feminist and publicist (1918, plaster of paris)
• Puci I. (1921, marble)
• Desire, Vágy (1922, plaster)
• Rest, Pihenő (1923, bronze)
• Danae (1923, plaster)
• Puci II (1923, marble)
• Puci III. (1923, plaster)
• Sunrise, Napkelte (1925, plaster)
• Sadness, Bánat (1925, plaster)
• The fight of Jacob with the angel, Jákob és az angyal

swell

• Függetlenség III. évfolyam, 59th szám 1935. március 12. kedd
• obituary

Individual evidence

1. ↑ history. In: PICK Germany. Retrieved June 25, 2019 (German). 
2. ↑ Le Musée du Soir
3. ↑ ^{a b} Petri Lajos szobrászművész gyűjteményes kiállítása. Exhibition catalog (Hungarian)
4. ↑ A Nemzeti Szalon kiállításainak katalógusai 1958–1960 | Könyvtár | Hungaricana. Retrieved June 26, 2019 .