Tag Archives: Peter Krafft
The Unger exhibition opening at the museum
At the long last I manage to post here again. I had prepared two further entries, but have not managed to proofread them and add pictures as of yet.
In the meantime I have returned from a holiday in Hungary, where I tried to relax as much as possible, spending as much time as possible riding, soaking in thermal baths and just seizing the moment. The first days were nice and warm, but then the weather changed and it became hideously cold, definitely not what we had expected.
Last Thursday then the Unger exhibition (Egy győri polgárcsalád a reformkorból: az Ungerek – Kártyagyártók és művészek/ A middling sort family from Reform Age Győr: The Ungers — Card producers and artists) was opened at the XJ Museum in Győr. I cannot say how thrilled I am about this. Not just because it is so exciting to see the wooden playing card stamps from my family and pictures of their cards on display there, but also because finally Alajos Unger’s art is appreciated posthumously. This I had hoped for for the longest time and to find as much of his original artwork as possible. I remember when I was sitting on a bench in the parco Ducale in Parma contemplating this when I spent three months there attending Italian language and art history classes at the university there as an Erasmus student. I was taking every opportunity while being there and travelling around the country to see as much (renaissance) artwork as possible in museums, churches and elsewhere, which is really funny because Parma and Duchess Marie-Louise played such an important role in Leopold Kupelwieser’s career. This especially since I did not know that Kupelwieser had been Alajos’ teacher back then… Anyway, something somehow drove me to the arts back then, which helps me understand and appreciate Alajos’ art so much better.
Anyway, the exhibition was organised by the museum and it is not only highly informative but also has a high aesthetic value overall I find. This not just because of the artwork on display there — basically the two oil paintings from the National Gallery (The Recapture of Győr, the family portrait from 1843) and the Madonna my relative loaned as well as various drawings by Alajos and Kupelwieser. I am also very pleased that the museum used all my information on the family and its members, which my family (my parents and the relative who loaned the painting) and I had researched and compiled for so many years. Finally it has all been bearing fruit and all these findings will be presented in more detail in my forthcoming article in the museum yearbook Arrabona. Dr Gy Sz mainly gave a summary of this article in his opening speech. It is noteworthy that the museum has shown such an interest in the history of the Unger family.
Unger Alajos/Alajos Unger (Győr 1814 – Győr 1848)
The (re-)discovery of a Kupelwieser-pupil and his works: Alajos Unger (bap 29 Oct 1814 +28 Dec 1848); also called Alois, Aloys or Lajos Unger
Vita brevis, ars longa. Hippocrates
Alajos Unger was born as the third child of master card-maker Mátyás Unger and his wife Anna Brandelmayer, who had settled down in Győr after getting married in their native town of Sopron in January 1811.
He started his education at the elementary and drawing school in his native city, where his drawing teacher was the painter János Hofbauer. In 1833 he began attending the drawing school at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, before he became a pupil of Leopold Kupelwieser in 1836, where he stayed until 1842. There he also studied anatomy under Anton Schaller.
In 1846 he displayed a painting at the exhibition of the Art Association of Pest.
He travelled around Europe. In 1848, after his return to his hometown, offered art courses in Győr’s local newspaper Hazánk and furthermore joined the national guard in the revolution and freedom fights (for some time) in that year.
For unknown reasons, he died of hepatitis in December 1848 and was buried by Ferenc Ebenhöch, a later cannon, local historian and collector of various objects that are now featured in museums in Budapest and Győr.
Alajos Unger’s known works are drawings (particularly male nudes), portraits, historical and religious depictions, the latter being the main theme of his oil paintings.
The whereabouts of most of Unger’s works are unknown, with the exception of two oil paintings in the possession of the National Gallery in Budapest, a collection of 35 drawings owned by the X J Museum in Győr and private collectors as well as further oil paintings owned by private owners. Several of these works will be shown at an exhibition at the museum to be opened in September 2010.
Worklist:
The recapture of Győr, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, at the time of publishing this entry on display at the Festetics palace museum in Keszthely
The artist and his family, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Mary with Jesus and John, family ownership
35 drawings, mainly male nudes, JX Museum, Győr and private ownership
Judith and Holofernes
The baptism of King Stephen, private ownership
St László, king of Hungary, perceives King Solomon (Szent László magyar király ráismer Salamon király)
The Holy Family
Picture clock with view of Venice, family ownership
to be continued
Literature:
Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon online/Artists of the World online, s.v. Unger Alajos
Wunderlich, C (2009): “Die Győrer Spielkartenmalerfamilie Unger – Im Spiegel neuer Erkenntnisse“, in: Talon – Zeitschrift des österreichisch-ungarischen Spielkartenvereins, 18/2009, Vienna/Budapest, pp 78-81
Wunderlich, C (in preparation): “The Unger artist and card-making family of Győr, ” (working title) in: Arrabona, yearbook of the János Xántus Museum, Győr and the literature cited therein
