1935 Nemzeti Szalon Estate Exhibition

The 1935 Hagyatéki kiállítás (estate exhibition) at the Nemzeti Szalon in Budapest gathered 118 works by György Rauscher, from 26 October to 10 November 1935. Organised by Hubay Andor with the painter’s brother László, it was the most complete view of the oeuvre ever assembled, and its catalogue is the canonical inventory on which this archive is built (/bibliography#szamado-2019, pp. 41-42).

This page reproduces that catalogue in full as a citable document, with the original numbering preserved.

The exhibition

The painter had died five years earlier. His studio estate had passed to his parents and then to his brother László, who supplied the works and collaborated with Hubay Andor on the show (see /biography/final-months-and-afterlife).

The 118 works span the whole career: the early self-portraits and study heads, the New Objectivity portraits and social subjects of the Hungarian years, the Berlin society lithographs, and a closing group of twenty-eight nude studies.

Reception

The reviews of the show are the fullest contemporary assessment of Rauscher’s work. The Pesti Hírlap critic Fóthy János fixed the ambivalence of the Berlin work in a sentence that has followed Rauscher ever since:

„néha csak egy hajszál választja el a divatos giccstől, de ez a hajszál sohasem hiányzik.”

“Sometimes only a hair separates it from fashionable kitsch, but that hair is never missing.” (/bibliography#pesti-hirlap-1935-10-26)

The Esti Kurir praised the graphic work above all:

„Grafikája abszolút tökély, színes kőrajzai a miniatúrák csudái, színekben az életvidámság, tárgyban az élniakarás.”

“His graphic work is absolute perfection, his coloured lithographs the miracles of miniatures, his colours the joy of life, his subjects the will to live.” (/bibliography#esti-kurir-1935-10-27)

The Népszava dwelt on the social conscience of the early work:

„Első képei keserű vádiratok a világ ellen … Koldusokat, idiótákat fest megdöbbentő erővel.”

“His first pictures are bitter indictments against the world … He paints beggars and idiots with startling power.” (/bibliography#nepszava-1935-09-15)

Further notices appeared in Magyarság and Nemzeti Újság (/bibliography#magyarsag-1935-10-27; /bibliography#nemzeti-ujsag-1935).

The catalogue (118 works)

The numbering follows the 1935 catalogue exactly. Numbers 23, 29, and 78 are gaps in the original source, not omissions here. Status is given as the holding institution where known (KGYM, MNG, OSZMI), known where the work was traced to a private or saleroom location in recent scholarship, and unlocated where the current whereabouts are unknown. Entries link to their work records as those records are added; works marked unlocated are gathered on /works/not-located.

Counts: 118 works. About sixty are marked unlocated, including the twenty-eight nude studies grouped as numbers 91 to 118; eight are in named museums (KGYM, MNG, OSZMI); the remainder were traced to private or saleroom locations in recent scholarship.

A documented absence: the Elisabeth Bergner portrait (1929, KGYM) does not appear in this printed catalogue, yet it is visible in the photographs of the 1935 installation and is securely Rauscher’s. The archive catalogues it as confirmed on that basis (see /sitters/elisabeth-bergner and /methodology).

The installation photographs of this exhibition survive and are a primary visual record of many otherwise unlocated works; their use and credit are described on /rights-reproductions.