FERENCZY, Károly
(b. 1862, Wien, d. 1917, Budapest)

Gardeners

1891
Oil on canvas, 135 x 156 cm
Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest

"Gardeners" was painted during Ferenczy's Szentendre period. Composition, lighting, colours and details follow naturalism. It is typical of him in composition that space becomes limited. The figures of the old gardener and the boy standing next to him have characteristic contours in front of a homogeneously light background. Their group can be easily identified even from a larger distance. The arrangement of figures and the balance between light and dark colours prove Ferenczy's sense of decoration which played an important role all through his career as a painter. He characterizes forms with a delicate contrast of light and shadow. Ferenczy had prepared two composition studies prior to the picture with models appearing in other oil pictures ("Gardener" and"Gardener Watering Plants"). "Gardeners" is considered to be a major picture of Ferenczy's first art period. What is appreciated here, is the skills of an artist at the beginning of his career, his knowledge, his firmness of finding his own wayand his efforts and steadiness to carry out his artistic plans.




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