A Stop in front of a Tavern

The painting presents a genre motif from a folk environment. The painter captured a common scene from the Hungarian puszta (grasslands), depicting a section of a road with the figure of a poor wanderer and a tavern with the figure of a farmer standing on the right. The middle part, with two horses tied to a hoarding fence, divides these two “worlds”.

The motif of a tavern is hinted at by two barrels placed at the right edge. Like most artists of Kubányi’s generation, he also found inspiration in rural subjects. The puszta, with a traditional well, is enclosed, with a low horizon in the back plan, while close to half of the painting area is dedicated to the sky, dominated by the dramatic feeling of a coming storm. His works, particularly in his last few decades, often included motifs of landholders but also of farmers, shepherds or coachmen in the natural surroundings of the lowlands.

The painter Ľudovít Kubányi was born in Dolné Strháre (Alsóesztergaly in Hungarian). The records of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich indicate the enrollment in 1881 of Kubányi, then 25, the son of a Protestant pastor. (ALBK, 1928, p. 31; Archiv 03968 Ludwig Kubanyi) Before enrolling at the academy he had managed to obtain an education as a pharmacist. He attended the primary class for academy students, the so-called Antikenklasse (Prof. Gabriel von Hackl), and continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest (Prof. Július / Gyula Benczúr, Bertalan Székely, Tihamer von Margitay). Afterwards, he worked in the region of his birth, inspired primarily by the work of his teacher Margitay.

He made genre paintings, portraits and altar paintings, including for the church in his birthplace. He frequently used motifs from the region of Novohrad, particularly scenes from the rural environment. His exhibitions in Budapest were well received but he did also get occasional unfavorable reviews.

Katarína Beňová ● ŠVANTNEROVÁ, Jana a kol.: Tieň minulosti / The Shadow of the Past, Bratislava: Neinvestičný fond židovského kultúrneho dedičstva – Menorah, 2013.