A More Nuanced Portrait. The Bicentennial of the Birth of Miklós Barabás (1810–1898)
A More Nuanced Portrait. The Bicentennial of the Birth of Miklós Barabás (1810–1898)

Summary/Abstract: In his autobiography, which was written towards the end of his life, Miklós Barabás commented on the significance of his endeavours of the 1860s: “It would hardly be worthwhile to dwell on the details of my everyday life, because I could say little other than that I was continuously painting; however, with regards to my deeds in public affairs, I consider some of them worthy of mention as not having been insignificant.” Similarly, critical assessments of his importance have tended to lay greater emphasis on the contributions Barabás made to institutional advances in the area of culture, such as his role in the Art Society of Pest and the National Society of Hungarian Fine Arts, rather than on his achievements as a painter. A highly prolific painter who lived to a great age, Barabás, perhaps inevitably, suffered the disdain of his younger fellow artists. Yet, as is often the case with masters who at the height of their careers are respected by contemporaries but whose art is later dismissed as tedious and repetitious, later scholars have from time to time drawn attention to signs of innovation in his art not apparent at first glance. The 200th anniversary of his birth offers an occasion to probe the experimental aspects of his work, from his early panoramic sketch of Bucharest, made with the help of a camera obscura, to the photographic experiments of his later life.

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