József Rippl-Rónai
had at least as great an impact on modern Hungarian art as
Aristide Maillol
had on modern European sculpture. The friendship between these two influential artists, and the artistic documents of their relationship, are the focus of the exhibition. Presenting close to
two hundred
works, this exhibition also features the art of painter friends who were members of the Nabis (
Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, James Pitcairn-Knowles, and Édouard Vuillard
) and the Parisian environment, through works held by the Museum of Fine Arts and the Rippl-Rónai Museum in Kaposvár.
József Rippl-Rónai met Aristide Maillol in
Paris
around 1890. The two young artists formed a lifelong friendship, and supported each other in their artistic endeavors. The following ten years, and the friendship they shared, which helped them mature as artists, all played a decisive role in shaping both their careers. Maillol began as a painter, although he also designed carpets and carved wooden statues. Rippl-Rónai, after leaving his first master,
Mihály Munkácsy
, moved among Parisian Symbolist circles. From 1894, he worked alongside the Nabis, to whom he introduced Maillol. Maillol gradually moved away from painting, also eventually giving up carpet design in favor of a career as a sculptor. One of the peaks of their friendship was the three-month period Rippl-Rónai spent at the end of 1899 as Maillol's guest in Banyuls-sur-Mer in the Pyrenees.




This exhibition commemorates the friendship of these two extraordinary artists, and attempts to highlight the influence they exerted on each other. The exhibition includes one of Rippl-Rónai's masterpieces, his portrait of Maillol from 1899. This painting, kindly loaned to us by the
Musée d'Orsay
in Paris, was last seen by the Budapest public almost eighty years ago, in 1936. We are also grateful for the support of the
Fondation Dina Vierny-Musée Maillol
of Paris for the opportunity to display paintings, sketches, carpets and small sculptures by Aristide Maillol - a total of almost forty works. Prints and drawings by Maillol and other members of the Nabis, loaned by the Museum of Fine Arts Budapest, will also be on show at the exhibition.