Nicolas Éber

The Self-Portraits of Lajos Vajda

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His self-portraits play a crucial role in his oeuvre and can certainly be considered as unique with respect to their message. Although there exists a considerable amount of literature about Vajda's work and its different aspects, his self-portraits (the main subject here) have not yet been discussed as such, let alone in detail. In the following I propose to argue that his self-portraits are probably better suited than any of his other work for showing and understanding the personality and the art of Lajos Vajda.
According to the catalogue raisonnée, which is part of the most detailed and best illustrated book on Lajos Vajda1 to date, out of over one thousand items, a total of 54 self-portraits are known. Of these 19 originate from his early years (between 1923 and 1927) and the remaining 35 from his mature period (between 1934 and 1937). In the second period, just like the anonymous medieval monks who illuminated codices and painted icons, Vajda did not sign or date his works. Nor did he give them a title. The titles and the chronology in the catalogue are the fruits of several years of work on the part of his widow Julia Vajda and of Stefánia Mándy in the 1970s, some 30 years after the artist's death. One has to be aware that the chronology of the works is not accurate and that the titles of individual works are often arbitrary and not always pertinent.
Only two of the early self-portraits are reproduced here, to document Vajda's (at that time still conventional) style and early talent. Self-Portrait with Hat dated March 23, 1924 shows the still rather childish looks of the 15-year-old artist, whereas Self-Portrait with Raised Fist dated 1925 July depicts a 17-year-old man in a defiant, rebellious pose. In a certain sense this drawing is a key for the understanding of his character and prophetic attitude of mind.
Árpád Mezei offered a psychoanalytical interpretation for the large number of self-portraits and saw a narcissistic personality, a fascination with mirror-like images and reflection as inspiration behind them.2 As I see it, the self-portraits of the early period have rather to be considered as part of a normal "know thyself" process in accordance with the inscription at the entrance of Pythia's, the oracle's, cave in Delphi. Superficially, the strongest argument against the narcissism hypothesis is the fact that from the seven year period between 1927 and 1934, during which Vajda was pursuing his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and spending nearly four years in Paris, no self-portraits are known. The same goes for the last four years of his life between 1938 and 1941.
On his return to Hungary in 1934, he settled in Szentendre and began to realize the artistic vision to which he devoted all his energy and attention. His attitude is best characterized in lines from a letter written to his wife-to-be Julia Vajda in 1936: "I am one of those who are thinking about what they are doing. In art I am much more rational than in my everyday life, where I allow myself to be influenced by my feelings." These words are essential for an understanding and appreciation of his self-portraits within a conceptual framework.

In what follows I intend to discuss the self-portraits of Vajda as parts of a larger entity, as constituents of something which could be best described by the analogy of a symphony. We may look at them as parts of a building or as musical statements, which have their development and build up to movements in a composition. The different categories and sub-categories within this complex can be advantageously compared with the movements of a symphony.
The basis or initial step, the corner stone of the building or the opening theme of Vajda's "self-portrait symphony", are line-drawings. Vajda succeeded in simplifying and substantiating the features of his head to the extent that it had almost more in common with a signature than with a self-portrait. A typical and presumably the earliest example of this style appears on the drawing entitled simply Self-Portrait. Like a signature it does not express or reveal any emotions, feelings or mood. Its sole purpose is to identify the artist- like a signature identifies the writer at the end of a message- and to indicate the artist's presence as an emblematic image which always appears in combination with something or somebody else. It is a reminder that we have to do with a message, a declaration by the artist. In its utmost simplicity it functions in a similar way as the famous four-note opening of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Thereafter it is, in both Beethoven's and Vajda's case, modulated and combined with other themes.
Vajda was a brilliant draughtsman. His line is of almost unprecedented clarity, safety and vibratingly alive. In this respect the comparison between him and Paul Klee, which several scholars have made appears to be well justified.
In the first movement of the self-portrait symphony (which one might compare with the first movement Allegro con brio of Beethoven's 5th Symphony) the line-drawing self-portrait appears in different variations and combinations. Typical examples are Self-Portrait with Barred Window, Self-Portrait with Church and Life-Tree Self-Portrait, all intended and to be understood as declarations of his empathy and solidarity and an expression of affection for his environment, for Szentendre, where he discovered and wanted to explore his roots.
A second theme or variation on "empathy and affection" is demonstrated in the two drawings Double-Portrait with a House and Double-Portrait with a Nude. In the first Vajda's own and his best friend's (the painter Endre Bálint's) features appear superimposed, mounted one on each other in combination with architectural and still-life elements; in the second the same two features are combined with a nude (symbolising the loved wife of the then newly-wed artist) and various geometric elements. His friend and his wife were the two closest and most important people in his life. These two drawings furnish convincing evidence about Vajda's unrivalled draughtsmanship and compositional ability. Their harmony, transparency and multi-layeredness are demonstrations of the very highest virtuosity.
Besides, and sometimes in combination with, the line-drawings demonstrating his clear and obvious intention to express empathy for his environment and/or his beloved, Vajda repeatedly depicted himself with a skull on his forehead, as in Self-Portrait with Church. The most impressive work in this connection is Self-Portrait with Skull. These are clear indications that, due to his chronic bad health, the idea of death, memento mori, was constantly on his mind and that he knew full well that he could not expect to live long and had no time to waste if he wanted to complete his artistic mission. The more grateful, therefore, we should be to him for having created his life-work with so much self-discipline and self-sacrifice.
As the second movement of Vajda's "self-portrait symphony", by analogy with the Allegro con moto of Beethoven's Fifth, self-portrait paintings make their appearance. Within this wider family of works we can find, just at the beginning of the 1935–37 period, several self-portraits on which the artist's features, that is, his complexion, are dark or even black. The most impressive of these is Black Self-Portrait, whose present whereabouts is unfortunately unknown after it was recently stolen from the home of its owner. What does this painting mean, how are we to understand and interprete its message? What did Vajda wish to express by the blackness of his face? No doubt, this enigmatic work has a message, a declaration of solidarity with those who are the oppressed and discriminated against. Equally revealing and elusive is the pupil-less eye, which features in four self-portraits.
Another remarkable painting of this period, fully embedded by message and meaning into its time of creation is Self-Portrait with Mask. Someone who wears a mask is for some reason afraid to show his real face. He is hiding himself against the threat, the danger behind the mask: he is afraid. Vajda could have had many reasons for fear, not only of death due to his illness. He had also good grounds for fear: the steadily increasing threat because of his Jewishness and of the pressing misery in which he lived, financial anxieties which were apparently insoluble.
The next theme of the second movement of Vajda's self-portrait symphony is the icon-style self-portrait. Of the two basically similar paintings Self-Portrait with Lily (1936) presents a conceptualised, even imaginary portrait; it could even be called a glorified portrait of the artist, radiating dignity. We see no trace of the artist's real features that his line-drawing self-portraits have made us familiar with.
The differences spring from the sum of the details. In this icon-style painting, the shape of the head is rounded and has the form of an ellipsis. As to other features, it is the dissimilarity of the eyes and of the nose in comparison to the real line-drawing self-portrait that is striking. Here the nose is substantially shorter. The eyes are round, instead of the usual empty almond-shape with the iris in their upper side to give them a dreaming, far looking character. The impression these round eyes creates is significantly intensified by eyebrows of a regular semicircular shape. In this picture the head, including the hair, is rounded in every respect and this lends to it a glorified expression. Vajda only used the icon style in paintings, we know of no icon-style drawings. We may assume some sort of homage or devotion at the origin of a "sacred image" (which also profanes the icon, an image normally only produced to represent saints) combined with blasphemy and hubris, suggesting in a way no more and no less than a quasi self-canonisation of Lajos Vajda. I venture to say, if art also had its saints Lajos Vajda would deserve a front row place. These icon-style self-portraits show that he saw himself in a similar way and, surprisingly, he had the courage and boldness to express it.
Despite all the striking dissimilarities when compared to the more faithful self-portraits, I unreservedly accept the general concensus that this is also a portrait of Lajos Vajda. This is somehow like imagining a meeting with your deceased loved ones in the Other World and recognizing them in their bodiless guises.
This stunning and beautiful painting, now part of the permanent exhibition of the Hungarian National Gallery, seems to me to have an all too obviously erroneous title. What the painting shows is not a lily but an olive branch, the symbol of peace and goodwill since Antiquity. It should obviously be retitled as Self-Portrait with an Olive Branch.

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Finally let us turn to and make an attempt to reinterpret the most important work among Vajda's self-portraits and in his entire oeuvre, the pastel painting hitherto known as Icon-Style Self-Portrait Pointing Upwards.
This work is a synthesis of the self-portraits, in spite of the fact that, to our present knowledge, it was executed not at the end but in the middle of his 1934–37 period, in 1936. In this piece can be found the development of the line-drawings and of the icon-style paintings coalescing, almost culminating, summing up the motifs previously employed. In a way, it is comparable to the third and fourth movements, the Allegro and the Allegro Presto, of Beethoven's 5th Symphony which also invoke and develop the theme of the first movement.
Modest in size (83.5 x 68 cm), its effect is monumental. It is an outstanding example of a development from the simple to the complex. The mode of representation of the line-drawings reappears here in a painting for the first time, enriched by traits from the icon-style paintings.
Icon-Style Self-Portrait Pointing Upwards has three principal elements that immediately catch the eye, namely two heads and a hand. In the upper middle of the painting, directly opposite the spectator, there is a light green-based-tone head looking to the right and its trunk covered by a shawl. The features of the head are easily identifiable as those we are familiar with on the line-drawings. We may call it the self-portrait head. In front of it another darker, golden-brown toned, though transparent, icon-like spherical head (or simply icon-head) with its trunk in similar colour. The icon-head is opposed to the self-portrait-head and is therefore faceless, only seen from the back. The icon-head figure was always considered as the incarnated representant of deity, Jesus Christ.
On careful inspection, a third face can be discerned or rather imagined: it originates in the interface of the self-portrait-head and the icon-head. Its contour is that of the icon-head, whereas the line of its chin and its eyes (looking to the left) are those of the self-portrait head. It would be difficult to decide whether this third face has been intended at all by the artist or if it is only there in the observer's imagination.
Until recently the understanding of the role, the affiliation and iconographic function of the hand represented in the picture had met difficulties. The largely oversized, disproportionate, black hand with its threatening impression does not belong to any of the figures present in the painting. It is, however, merely a hand. Furthermore, as against the suggestion implied in its given title, it does not point anywhere.
As I see it, the self-portrait head represents the spiritual side of mankind rooted in an immaterial world, the hand represents the material side of mankind. It is this simultaneous double relationship of man which makes him essentially different from deity and other living creatures. This also explains the unique role man fulfils in the world, indeed in all Creation, which has enabled him to create civilization and culture.
The hand is the more sinful side of man since it is closer to the material world. In man's deeds the hand- in contrast to his brain which can be considered as the intellectual author- is the executor both in his benefaction and his crimes. Without hands, the opportunities for man, for the human brain, to sin would be considerably reduced. This is the reason why the hand in the picture is so oversized, black and threatening; there must have been similar considerations which induced Vajda to represent a left hand. According to the strict rules of the Orthodox Christian canon- which were well known to Vajda- it was only the right hand which was entitled to indicate gestures of the canon.
As to the gesture of the hand and its meaning here, I am in agreement with earlier critics that it reveals hesitation and expresses perplexity and uncertainty. This hand is unable to show the way. Bearing in mind that in 1936 world war was already looming, this was an understandable and logical assessment by Vajda of the state of mankind, the Conditio Humana; I have suggested elsewhere, it would be more appropriate to have it as the title of the work.
Symbolic and contemporary allusions abound in this painting. It is not difficult to see the bundle of fibre cutting through the hand between the thumb and the palm from the right above to the left as a symbol for the physical threat of mankind and in a similar way in the illuminated nail of the thumb some little ray of hope. Observing somewhat more carefully the dark shade of the same colour as the hand which is covering the middle part of the self-portrait-head, we are reminded of the painting Self-Portrait with Mask, which we have already interpreted above, and to the fear and anxieties of its bearer.
If the painting is indeed the expression of the human condition, the condition of mankind, the questions may be legitimately raised as to what Vajda's diagnosis is and what treatment he suggests.
The faces, the lips in the painting remain mute. It is only the gesturing hand which is speaking: about uncertainty, raggedness and threat. The head, the face of the painter is hiding behind a mask, it is afraid. The hand, representant of the material real world is embarassed, cannot, is not able to show the way out, to indicate a direction. The way out consists in the turning of man towards God, to Christ, to observation of His principal teaching, love for one's fellow-men. That is what man has to do. Presumably this is what Vajda intended to indicate by the self-portrait figure's covering, attracting the icon-figure with its shawl. This can be considered the humanistic message of this work by Lajos Vajda.

Nicolas Éber
left Hungary in December 1956 and now lives in Switzerland where he trained as an engineer. For almost twenty years he has been active as a collector and a connoisseur of modern Hungarian art.