Acclaimed Hungarian artist exiled by the Gestapo

Khristi Zimmeth
| Special to The Detroit News

“It’s been hanging in our house forever,” Janet Bailey explained of a woman’s charcoal drawing she recently brought to the Michigan Design Center in Troy for review. There, expert Brian Thomczek took a closer look at the item, which her mother bought in the 1950s. Her mother was editor of the Birmingham Eccentric newspaper, she explained, adding that she bought the piece in a gallery in Birmingham. “She fell in love with it and told me to buy it.”

Bailey says her mother paid $100 and had it framed. She was about 10 at the time and remembers it hanging in her house growing up. The piece, entitled ‘Supplication’, is the work of the renowned Hungarian painter Francis de Erdely. A website (francisdeerdely.com) about the artist contains extensive background and additional information. Born in Budapest, Erdely graduated from the city’s Royal Academy of Arts. He also studied in Madrid and at the Sorbonne and the Louvre in Paris. As a boxer, he financed part of his artistic studies from competitions. He won a series of awards in Hungary and became known throughout Europe and eventually in the United States.

Early works depicted war atrocities and the artist was eventually banished from Hungary by early Gestapo members, according to the gallery’s website sullivangoss.com. He settled first in New York and eventually in LA, ‘where he found his place as an American artist.’ He taught at the Pasadena Art Institute School, the Jepson Art Institute, and the University of Southern California until his death in 1959. Today he is considered one of the top members of the West Coast Modernist school, with work in permanent collections around the world, including the DIA. He won a series of awards at the DIA and the nearby Scarab Club in the 1940s.

Bailey’s piece is unusual because it is done in green charcoal and not black. Thomczek praised the quality of the piece, but not the framing. “This needs to be reframed,” he told her, adding that he would recommend former DIA curator Ken Katz to Conservation and Museum Services (conservationandmuseumservices.com) in downtown Detroit.

“Acid-free paper and non-UV glass are essential to prevent further damage,” he said, valuing the piece at auction at $300 to $500, perhaps more because of its larger size. He said a new, more modern frame would better suit the work and sell better if she ever wanted to part with it. “People don’t want these gold frames,” he explained. Bailey said she plans to keep it, which Thomczek said he could understand, adding, “She’s definitely a beauty.”

Contact Khristi Zimmeth at [email protected].

About this article

Item: Charcoal drawing

Property of: Janet Bailey

Appraised by: Brian Thomczek

Estimated value: $300-$500 and up at auction