Longing Sándor Nagy

Longing depicts the sinful, demonic woman in the figure of the fallen Eve, a favourite theme of Symbolism and Art Nouveau. The fine red chalk drawing reflects brilliant craftsmanship. The figure follows the tradition of nude representation in Academic art, while the rendering of the environment links the work to Art Nouveau. However, the drawing can be viewed not simply as representing the symbolist traditional theme of the immoral woman tempting to sin. Eve’s body is not sensual but rather athletic, and it is not eroticism that dominates her movement. Several artists of the Gödöllő Artists’ Colony, including Nagy, were followers of a natural lifestyle. They regularly did sports, exercised, slept in the open air, bathed naked, and this lifestyle also affected the way they dressed and what they ate. Eve’s movement, apparently affected, is a characteristic reference to orchestics, the new art of movement. With Longing, Nagy tried to give a specific meaning to the biblical story: this is the longing of the natural man, presented in the image of the female progenitor, for the fruit of the tree of knowledge, i.e. for a full life in and through the Spirit.