Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka’s priceless painting Full Moon over Taormina, unseen by the public for a long time, is featured in the exhibition titled Rome–Budapest, which opened on Thursday at the Virág Judit Gallery—the gallery announced on Wednesday.
According to the gallery’s statement, the display of Csontváry’s Sicilian landscape painted in 1901 is considered an art sensation, as the privately-owned painting has not been seen by the wider audience for a long time. The statement quotes art historian Anna Kelen, who explained that only a few works of Csontváry have survived, and
there might be around twenty pieces in private collections, one of which is Full Moon over Taormina.
Csontváry visited Sicily several times, and during one of these trips, he painted this picture, as well as its counterpart, the Blossoming Almonds in Taormina. Csontváry painted the two pictures from almost the same spot, but facing in different directions and at different times of the day. The uniqueness of Full Moon over Taormina is enhanced by its depiction of a nocturnal landscape, which required a unique technique from the artist, as well as its sheer size.
The value of the painting is difficult to estimate, but currently, a Csontváry painting the Secret Island, which was sold for 460 million forints at the Virág Judit Gallery auction in 2021, holds the Hungarian auction record.
The Rome–Budapest exhibition features over a hundred colourful, Italian-style, spectacular paintings and other artworks. The gallery has been working on the exhibition for several years, and most of the works were loaned by private collectors, allowing the audience to see works that are rarely, if ever, shown by their owners. The exhibition illustrates how Italy influenced Hungarian fine arts through the paintings and other artworks of Vilmos Aba-Novák, Lajos Gulácsy, Károly Patkó, and János Vaszary, among others.
The free-to-view exhibition awaits visitors between 22 February and 28 March.
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Sources: Hungarian Conservative/MTI
