1810 -1898 · Transylvania, Hungarian pest and portrait

Precise resemblance, sober elegance and mastery of watercolor make Miklôs Barabâs the great portraitist of 19th century Hungary.

Miklôs Barabâs was born in 1810 in Markosfalva, Transylvania, and died in Budapest in 1898. He trained first in his native region then in Vienna, before traveling to Italy in 1834 -1835. This stay allowed him to deepen watercolor, a technique still relatively new in his practice and which he took to a remarkable level. Installed in Pest, Barabâs became the sought-after portraitist of Hungarian society: aristocrats, writers, politicians, scholars and artists found in him an image that was both faithful, accessible and dignified. In 1839, already considered a pioneering figure in Hungarian national art, he stayed at the spa resort of Gräfenberg. The National Gallery hungarian recalls that orders flow there to the point of transforming the cure into a new period of work; the watercolors produced on site combine portraits, landscapes and detailed observation of the life of the sanatorium. The Portrait of Count Istvân Széchenyi gives the reformer a measured public presence: stable posture, dark costume and attentive gaze build an authority without emphasis. The Portrait of János Arany applies the same clarity to the poet, whose face and attitude express concentration and interiority. The Portrait of János Arany applies the same clarity to the poet, whose face and attitude express concentration and interiority. Barabás actively participates in Hungarian artistic institutions and helps to visually capture the great figures of his century. The "Miklôs" selection Barabâs" notably compares Portrait of János Arany and Portrait of Count Istvân Széchenyi. His reading favors drawing.

Barabás gives a civil form to the resemblance: face, costume and attitude are enough to make the portrait the visible memory of a nation under construction.