Rainstorm on the Plain Károly Lotz

The scenery of the Great Plain with the long sweep-pole of the draw-well became the popular symbol of Hungarian landscape in the poems of Sándor Petőfi and János Arany, and in painting first in Károly Lotz’s tempestuous landscapes. The dual symbolism of the theme can be decrypted in both nineteenth- and twentieth-century works: it stood for both the sluggish barrenness of the “Hungarian wasteland” and for the Hungarians’ unquenchable longing for freedom with its unbounded vastness. Following his early successes after his studies in Vienna, young Károly Lotz returned home and got down to the depiction of the Hungarian rural scenery with a surprising freshness. Although most of his stormy landscapes still root in romanticism, their natural dramatism, varied compositions and especially the colours borrowed from reality bring them closer to realism. He was particularly receptive to the atmospheric phenomena of the enormous firmament above the broad landscape. His swirling clouds of exquisite plasticity, the character and movement of horses, the peculiar sense of life of the people of the plain are very characteristic features of Lotz’s manner. | Anna Szinyei Merse