From Romanticism to Post-Impressionism

In the nine exhibition halls and cabinets of the North wing of the first floor gallery the finest pictures and sculptures of the 19th century reveal themselves to the visitor. In eight rooms, the major schools of French art of the period between 1800 and 1900 are representing from the period of Romanticism to Post-Impressionism. A representative chamber bows before the art of German, Austrian, and English masters with Böcklin, Liebl, Amerling and Menzel among them. At the same time, the exhibition pays a tribute of respect to the one-time collection keepers who laid the foundation of the collection of the museum and to connaisseurs who once bestowed masterpieces of their collection upon the Museum of Fine Arts.
French Romanticism is represented in the exhibition by paintings of Delacroix, while Realism by five canvases of Courbet. Works of almost all members of the Barbison School are exhibited, among them those of Troyon, Millet and Jacque. One can explore Early Impressionism through major pieces as La Varenne de Saint-Hilaire by Pissarro or Portrieux by Boudin. Three major works by Monet as well as a canvas by Cézanne and Manet stand out among masterpieces of Impressionism. Works as Pont Neuf by Pissaro or Toulouse-Lautrec's lampoonery These Ladies in the Refectory make the most of, hence somewhat exceed the results of Impressionism. Gauguin's Black Swine is a real curiosity of the collection. Besides paintings, several major pieces of 19th century sculpture are on view, such as works of Carpeaux, Rodin and Maillol.  The Rodin collection of the Museum of Fine Arts is completed now by a private loan.
The exhibition was sponsored by Mazars Kft. and BNP Paribas.

Art at the turn of the century

Our selection presented in the Majovszky rooms in the basement displays new creative endeavours of art movements at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. The era exhibited here coincides with the foundation of the Museum of Fine Arts, the time when establishing a modern art collection was a major goal of Hungarian cultural policy. For this reason, this period is richly represented in our collection. Beside individual national features the exhibition focuses on analogous artistic ideas emerging in several areas of the continent.
In our selection built upon thematic units, works of the greatest French masters, such as Gauguin, Bonnard, Denis and Rodin are presented together with artists of other nations as Böcklin, Stuck, Segantini, Khnopff and Axeli Gallén-Kallela. Our new exhibition hall provides the possibility to show further excellent pieces of art from our stores, such as works of the Italian Medardo Rosso or the Finnish Pekka Halonen and Yryö Liipola, as well as the double portrait of the former director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Elek Petrovics and the collector and curator of the Museum, Simon Meller by the Hungarian painter József Rippl-Rónai. The succeeding divisions of the exhibition are 'Mythology', 'Faces', 'Genre-Idyll' and 'Landscapes'. A selection in our last hall renewed from time to time, provides a taste of the graphic arts of the period, commencing with posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha, completed by a design for a mosaic by Walter Crane.