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Christa Zaat



József Rippl-Rónai (Hungarian painter) 1861 - 1927
Young Woman with Rose (aka Lady in Red), 1898
tapestry
125 x 230 cm.
signed on the bottom left: Rónai 1898
Museum of Aplied Arts, Budapest, Hungary

(The native form of this personal name is Rippl-Rónai József)

The outstanding artist of Hungarian post-impressionism, József Rippl-Rónai (1861–1927) was active as a member of the Nabis [Prophets] during his stay in Paris in the last decade of the 19th century. Within the frames of synthetic symbolism, the group endeavoured to give equal weight to all groups of decorative art objects which they could best present in an interior unifying the work of several artists. In this spirit did Rippl-Ronai get down to design the dining room furnishing of count Tivadar Andrássy’s (1857–1905) Buda palace. The furniture was manufactured by Endre Thék’s (1842–1919) workshop, the ceramics by the Zsolnay factory, the glass windows by Miksa Róth (1865–1944), the glass objects by the Wiesbaden glass factory. From the textile decoration – embroidered frieze, foldingscreen, door hanging and tapestry – only the tapestry, a peak of Hungarian Art Nouveau textile art hung above the mantelpiece survived World War II. In the middle, the woman in the red dress turns partly away from the viewer. There is a tiny flower in one hand, and the other hand is stretched behind her with the typical gesture of Japanese prints. The figure and the vegetation are surrounded by dark brown outlines. The predominant colours are various shades of red and green. The serene and rich colour scheme and patch-like planar presentation radiate the calm of decorativeness. In the lower left corner it is signed “Ronai 1898”. The tapestry was embroidered by the French wife of the artist, Lazarine Boudrion.
Rippl-Ronai’s study drawing for the tapestry, "Woman holding a rose" is held by the Hungarian National Gallery.

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He was born in Kaposvár. After his studies at the High School there, he went to study in Budapest, where he obtained a degree in pharmacology. In 1884 he travelled to Munich to study painting at the Academy. Two years later he obtained a grant which enabled him to move to Paris and study with Munkácsy, the most important Hungarian realist painter. In 1888 he met the members of Les Nabis and under their influence he painted his first important work, The Inn at Pont-Aven, a deeply felt work notable for its dark atmosphere. His first big success was his painting My Grandmother (1894). He also painted in a portrait of Hungarian pianist and composer Zdenka Ticharich (1921).

Later he returned to Hungary, where critical reception was at first lukewarm, but he eventually had a very successful exhibition entitled "Rippl-Rónai Impressions 1890-1900". He believed that for an artist not only is his body of work significant, but also his general modus vivendi, even including the clothes he wore. He thus became interested in design, which led to commissions such as the dining room and the entire furnishings of the Andrássy palace, and a stained-glass window in the Ernst Museum, (both in Budapest). Between 1911 and 1913 his exhibitions in Frankfurt, Munich and Vienna were highly successful. His last major work, a portrait of his friend Zorka, was painted in 1919, and in 1927 he died at his home, the Villa Roma in Kaposvár.