The Critic
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Lajos Tihanyi was a member of the Budapest avant-garde group called The Eight, who were engaged with the modern art trends emerging in the early twentieth century across Europe. He left his native country after the fall of the Hungarian Democratic Republic in 1919, eventually settling in Paris. In this portrait of his friend the Hungarian literary critic Andor Halasi, he emphasized the sitter’s pronounced bone structure with a subtle play of light and shadow.
Caption
Lajos Tihanyi (Budapest, present–day Hungary (former Austro–Hungarian Empire), 1885 – 1938, Paris, France). The Critic, 1916. Oil on canvas, 20 1/8 x 16 3/8 in. (51.1 x 41.6 cm) frame: 27 3/8 × 23 1/4 in. (69.5 × 59.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Right Reverend John Torok, D.D., 29.1302. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Gallery
Not on view
Gallery
Not on view
Artist
Title
The Critic
Date
1916
Geography
Place made: Hungary
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
20 1/8 x 16 3/8 in. (51.1 x 41.6 cm) frame: 27 3/8 × 23 1/4 in. (69.5 × 59.1 cm)
Signatures
Signed and dated lower left: "Tihanyi L./1916"
Credit Line
Gift of the Right Reverend John Torok, D.D.
Accession Number
29.1302
Frequent Art Questions
This is a painting by Hungarian artist Lajos Tihanyi, as you may have read on the label the subject of the painting is Andor Halasi, a literary critic Tihanyi knew well. Interestingly the majority of his works were portraiture, though it is unclear how the artist may have communicated with sitters.
The artist was actually deaf and mute and was mostly self taught because of his hearing impairment. He was very inspired by Cubism which can be seen in fragmented planes of the critic’s face. His intensively psychological approach to painting, asserting the individual character of his subject, has led Tihanyi to be seen as a forerunner to Expressionism.
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