Szinyei Wanted

In search of missing works by Pál Szinyei Merse.

In 2020 we are commemorating the 175th anniversary of Pál Szinyei Merse’s birth and the centenary of his death. Our memorial exhibition, which was planned for the anniversary but postponed to the beginning of 2021 due to the pandemic, seeks to present international parallels with the master’s art, using the findings of earlier research while exploring the stations of the Szinyei cult in the twentieth-century. The exhibition further  attempts to clarify the artist’s hitherto relatively well-defined place in the history of Hungarian and universal art.

Thanks to the cult that was already developing in his lifetime, several monographs with fundamental statements were published on Szinyei during the twentieth century. The Hungarian National Gallery last presented his oeuvre at a large-scale exhibition in 1990, which was accompanied by an extensivemonograph (1990) by Anna Szinyei Merse, including a catalogue of the artist’s oeuvre. Several pictures by Szinyei have emerged over the last thirty years that were previously known only from sources, but we are still aware of numerous works that exist somewhere, yet their whereabouts remain unknown.

These works are on our “wanted” list. Based on earlier, similar initiatives, it is our hope that one or more of the works reproduced here and evoked through their descriptions in monographs published in the past will emerge either in Hungary or abroad as the artist’s oeuvre will be enriched by any newly found work, whether it was well known or hitherto unknown.

If you have any information concerning these pictures or other paintings by Szinyei, please contact chief museologists Orsolya Hessky and Réka Krasznai, the curators of the Szinyei exhibition.
Contact detail of chief museologist and curator Orsolya Hessky:
Tel.: +36 20 4397 443
Contact detail of chief museologist and curator Réka Krasznai:
Tel.: +36 20 4397 310
E-mail: szinyei.wanted@szepmuveszeti.hu

The “wanted” works are as follows:

Veranda , 1902, oil on canvas, 121.5 × 108.5 cm, signed bottom left: Szinyei Merse P. 1902

Morning, 1900, oil on canvas, size unknown, signed bottom left: Pál Szinyei Merse 1900

Walking in Tutzing, 1873, oil on wood, 7.1 × 19 cm, signed bottom left: Szinyei 1873

Ballerina, 1878, oil on canvas, 47.5 × 35 cm, signed bottom left: Szinyei 1878

Studio I, 1873, oil on canvas, 51 × 42 cm, signed bottom right.: Sz.

Bathing Hut, 1872, oil on canvas, approx. 26 × 52 cm, signed bottom right: P. v. Szinyey 1872

Apple Study, 1867, oil on canvas (pasted onto cardboard), 23 × 19.5 cm, signed bottom right: Szinyei 1867

Boy in Red, 1866, oil on canvas, 43.5 × 37.5 cm, signed bottom right: Szinyey P. [twice]

Poet, 1866, oil on canvas, 51 × 40.5 cm, signed bottom left: Szinyey 1866

Young Woman with a Lace Kerchief, 1866, oil on canvas, 48 × 41 cm, signed bottom right: S.P.

Capri, 1903, oil on canvas, 31.5 × 37.9 cm, signed bottom right: Szinyei 1903

Szinye, ca. 1870, oil on canvas, approx. 40 × 50 cm, signed bottom right: P. v. Szinyey

Riders, 1870, oil on canvas, size unknown, signed bottom left: Szinyei 1870.

Stormy Lake Balaton, 1916, oil on canvas, 100 × 120 cm, signed bottom left.: Szinyei

FOUND - Silver Maple , 1909, oil on canvas, size unknown, signed bottom right: Szinyei

·  Young Woman with a Lace Kerchief, 1866
oil on canvas, 48 × 41 cm, signed bottom right: S.P.

·  Poet, 1866
oil on canvas, 51 × 40.5 cm, signed bottom left: Szinyey 1866

·  Boy in Red, 1866
oil on canvas, 43.5 × 37.5 cm, signed bottom right: Szinyey P. [twice]

·  Apple Study, 1867
oil on canvas (pasted onto cardboard), 23 × 19.5 cm, signed bottom right: Szinyei 1867

·  Szinye, ca. 1870
oil on canvas, approx. 40 × 50 cm, signed bottom right: P. v. Szinyey

·  Bathing Hut, 1872
oil on canvas, approx. 26 × 52 cm, signed bottom right: P. v. Szinyey 1872

·  Studio I, 1873
oil on canvas, 51 × 42 cm, signed bottom right.: Sz.

·  FOUND – Silver Maple , 1909
oil on canvas, size unknown, signed bottom right: Szinyei

·  Stormy Lake Balaton, 1916
oil on canvas, 100 × 120 cm, signed bottom left.: Szinyei

·  Ballerina, 1878
oil on canvas, 47.5 × 35 cm, signed bottom left: Szinyei 1878

·  Capri, 1903
oil on canvas, 31.5 × 37.9 cm, signed bottom right: Szinyei 1903

·  Riders, 1870
oil on canvas, size unknown, signed bottom left: Szinyei 1870.

·  Morning, 1900
oil on canvas, size unknown, signed bottom left: Pál Szinyei Merse 1900

·  Walking in Tutzing, 1873
oil on wood, 7.1 × 19 cm, signed bottom left: Szinyei 1873

·  Veranda , 1902
oil on canvas, 121.5 × 108.5 cm, signed bottom left: Szinyei Merse P. 1902