6. The 19-20th-century Collection

This collection is not shown at the permanent exhibition, but has been exhibited several times at the temporary exhibitions of the past few decades. The museum founder János Simor’s intention was to collect the art of old times in order to promote the understanding of contemporary art in any given period. He also regularly commissioned and purchased works from the living artists he appreciated. He favoured especially paintings, prints, and drawings created in a deeply religious spirit. He employed F. J. Dobyaschofsky and Ferenc Szoldatits already at the time when he was bishop of Győr, and brought with him several of their pictures when he moved to the archiepiscopal city of Esztergom. The best known Hungarian artists he supported are Sándor Liezen Mayer, Károly Markó, the young Károly Lotz and Antal Ligeti. For his purchases abroad, Simor relied on the help of experts. He bought two paintings, and commissioned five further cityscapes, from Hubert Sattler of Salzburg. He purchased the greatest number of works from Austrian and German artists who adhered to the Nazarene movement of Rome, such as Julius Schnorr von Carosfeld, Gebhardt Flatz, Carl von Blaas, and Joseph von Führich. From the well-known Viennese biedermeier painter Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller he bought a small work in oil entitled Maternal joy.
In the 20th century, the acquisition of contemporary art has declined; new works were only occasionally acquired from bequests or donations. After the 1950s, the Museum began to organize, from time to time, unofficial and short temporary exhibitions for contemporary artists. Since 1983, the ground floor exhibition rooms accommodate three or four exhibitions each year. The exhibiting artists (among others, Tamás Kárpáti, Imre Szakács, Erzsébet Udvardy, Ilona Maros, and Mária Hertay) have donated several works to the Museum. Imre Magyarász, Piroska Szántó, Konstantina Kákonyi, Péter Prokop, and Ernő Fischer have left to the Museums selected oeuvres counting several hundred works.
I.K.