Hungarian landscape

The painting does not bear any apparent signature. However, on the back of the frame there is an ascription to Joszef Nemes-Lampérth, a Hungarian painter with a short and troubled life, quite unknown in Western Europe and yet a figure of great importance for the Hungarian avant-garde. His creations oscillate between references to the painting of Cezanne (or more in general to Fauve painting) and precise references to the then-nascent Expressionism. There are two fundamental groups of his works: first of all the graphic work, characterized by studies of the figure and a very decisive feature that leads to an intense expression of human corporeality; secondly, landscape studies in which the hills, the leaves, and the houses are determined by the juxtaposition of differently colored areas favoring shades between green and violet. In fact, in this delicate painting with a truly exquisite touch, the houses of a city seem to emerge like ghosts from the green of the bush, and at the same time they converge with the trees in a series of overlapping walls that move the viewer’s gaze upwards. The very short existence of this brilliant artist has unfortunately prevented his complete evolution, but the few surviving works are enough to identify him as an important counterpart to the new movements that developed in Germany and France, where he also spent time.