cosset     pencil drawing     1910
Horváth collection     Sopron

it may have been this simple, rustic “puszta” life that I craved for, spending my life out in the great open prairie, rather than in a town or even a village, and to paint the inspiring surrounding there. How many happy hours I used to spend in the pen, appreciating those tiny craved medals, from which both the ewe and the lamb would get one, so they could be paired up again for suckling? What clever and beautiful definition of blood-relationship it was, as opposed to the painful, recent practice of burning the same number into the animals’ ears with a branding iron. And the shearing as well! What amazing picture was when all the women were busying themselves in worn, colourful clothes, the sheep’s heads gently leaning backwards and the soft, yellow oozing from everywhere! How poor Millet’s, Zügel’s or Segantini’s pictures depicting similar themes seemed compared to this one!
József Horváth     1959