Blossoming Trees

When considering the development of Hungarian landscape painting, László Mednyánszky must also be mentioned in addition to Géza Mészöly and László Paál. They were the three who departed perhaps the furthest from the academic understanding of the landscape, filling the photographic and topographic representation of the land with emotion and mood. Mednyánszky’s landscape reveals little about the land itself, just as his signature bright colours are now used only for the dots that indicate the flowers on the branches. The trees do not form a thick line, as in Paál, and the sky, as well as the ominous brown ground, are given more prominence. Mednyánszky would represent the same view on more than one occasions, in different ways; the Tatras are a recurring theme in his art, with the mood constantly changing. Blossoming Trees nonetheless shows a painter who is indebted to the Barbizon artists, and not without a reason: after attending the Munich Academy of Arts, Mednyánszky went on to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.