Tivadar Kostka Chontvari, painting "The Old Fisherman": photo, the mystery of the painting

Unknown to the artist Tivadar Kostka Chontwari, a century after his death, suddenly became famous for his painting "The Old Fisherman". The master himself was confident in his messianic mission, although contemporaries called it schizophrenia. Now in his paintings are looking for hidden symbols and veiled hints. And are they there? One of such works, subjected to a comprehensive analysis, is the picture "The Old Fisherman".

Unrecognized Artist

In 1853, a future painter was born in the Hungarian village of Kisseben. The fate of Tivadar and his five brothers was predetermined from childhood. They were prepared to continue their father's business. And the parent was an apothecary and had medical practice. But before going into pharmacology, the young man managed to graduate from high school, work as a sales person, and learn at the Faculty of Law. And after all this I turned to the family business. After coming to the pharmacy, Tivadar worked here for fourteen long years.

One day, when he was 28, on a normal working day, he grabbed a form of a recipe and a pencil and sketched out a story: a cart that was passing by at that moment by the window, with buffalo harnessed into it. Prior to that, he did not show a penchant for drawing, but later in his autobiography wrote that on that day he had a vision predicting the fate of the great painter.

By the spring of 1881, Tivadar Kostka opened his pharmacy in the northern part of Hungary and saved enough money to travel to Italy. Like all young artists, he dreamed of seeing the masterpieces of old masters. Especially he was attracted to Raphael's paintings. I must say that later he was disappointed in the idol, not finding in nature on his canvases proper liveliness and sincerity. After Rome, Kostka travels to Paris, and then to his homeland.

Seriously to engage in painting Chontwari (a pseudonym in 1900, he took himself an artist) began in the mid 1890's. He leaves his pharmacy to his brothers and comes to Munich to study painting. In many sources, Kostka is called self-taught, and meanwhile he studied at the art school of his famous compatriot, more successful in the field of art - Shimon Holloshi. The teacher was almost ten years younger than his pupil.

In Munich, Chontwari creates several portraits. Seal of sadness on the faces of models puts them apart from the more cheerful rest of his work. He paints portraits only during his studies, later losing interest in it. After leaving Munich, the artist goes to Karlsruhe, where he continues to take lessons, now with Callmorgen. The biographers of the artist say that he lived comfortably at this time, buying the best canvases of Belgian production for work.

Last years

The study did not bring satisfaction to Chontwari. It seemed that he comprehended the laws of painting only in order to break them. In 1895, he again went to Italy to work in nature in his favorite landscape genre. The artist visits not only Italy, but also France, Greece, the Middle East and Lebanon.

In 1907-1910, several personal exhibitions took place in Paris, Budapest and his homeland. They do not bring special fame to him, although some critics speak very approvingly. In Hungary, they even speak of the artist as a madman. It's no secret that he suffered from attacks of schizophrenia, but still hoped for recognition of his compatriots.

By 1910, the disease began to progress. Attacks became heavier, work was difficult. Chontwari does not write much more, makes only small sketches. He did not finish any work to the end, although he made attempts. At the age of sixty years, the artist died in Budapest, where he was buried.

Creative heritage

More than one hundred and fifty paintings and drawings were left behind by Tivadar Kostok Chontwari. The painting "The Old Fisherman", written in 1902, is perhaps the most famous of all, "iconic". Most of the works were created in a short period between 1903 and 1909. It was the creative flowering of the artist, the flash of genius. In their style, they are akin to expressionism. His works are also attributed features of symbolism, post-impressionism and even surrealism.

Posthumous recognition

After the death of Chontwari his work survived only by a miracle. Sister turned to the appraisers to find out how much you can get for the paintings. They assured her that their artistic value is zero. Then the woman judged that if the pictures are bad, then the canvases, at least, someone will come in handy. And put them in bulk for sale. All the work was taken by the architect Gedeon Gerlotsi, having interrupted the price of the junkman. Later, he posted paintings in the Budapest School of Fine Arts, and in 1949 exhibited them in Belgium and France.

Before his death, the architect handed over his collection to Zoltan Fulep, the future director of the Chontwari Museum. It was already a success. But that would be the artist's only known to a narrow circle of fans in his homeland, if, almost a century after his death, one of the museum workers did not find a secret that the painting "The Old Fisherman" still kept. Since then, the name of Chontwari, who has not sold a single picture, has become famous throughout the world.

"The Old Fisherman": description of the painting

Almost the entire space of the canvas is occupied by the figure of an elderly man. Storm wind whips his hair and old worn clothing. On the fisherman there is a black blouse, a gray beret and a raincoat. He leans on his staff and looks straight at the viewer. His face with rough skin, it is covered with a frequent network of wrinkles. In the background, the artist arranged the sea bay. Waves break on the shore, smoke from the pipes of the houses on the shore. On the horizon line there are mountains or, rather, their silhouettes hidden by milky fog. In relation to the figure of the fisherman, the landscape is secondary and plays the role of a background.

Painting "The Old Fisherman" Chontvari is solved in a restrained color scheme, dominated by muffled soft colors: gray, gray, sand, shades of brown.

The mystery of the painting "The Old Fisherman"

What did the museum employee do? We will uncover the intrigue: he found that if you close half the canvas and the rest of the symmetrical reflection, you will get a completely finished work of art. And it works in both cases: both with the right, and with the left part of the picture. For almost a hundred years the painting "The Old Fisherman" kept this secret. The photo of the assembled halves can now be easily found on the Internet. The reflection of the right half is a good old man, adorned with gray hair, against the background of the sea surface. If to reflect the left part, we will see the man in a pointed hat with slanted eyes and the raging waves behind him.

Interpretation

The painting "Old Fisherman" began the search for mystical hints in the works of Chontwari. Added oil to the fire and the fact that during life the artist often turned to the prophetic tone. This canvas is usually interpreted as a symbol of the dual human nature: in one man the light and dark halves coexist, good and evil. Sometimes it is also called "God and the Devil", which again reflects its dualism.

Truly, the success story of Tivadar Kostka Chontwari is an example of a series of happy accidents (or a great fate that appeared to him in visions, who knows?). The painting "The Old Fisherman" - genius and madness - ironically became his key to world fame. Unfortunately, recognition did not come to him during his lifetime. But to date, Chontwari is considered one of the best and most original artists of Hungary.