Katarína Beňová
The floods and Hungarian artists in the 19th century
This study focuses on one of the frequently examined types of disaster in the 19th century – the flood. Floods on the Danube, Váh, Hron, Tisa and many other rivers were often documented in illustrations and later in photography. The rescue of the inhabitants of the Austrian Empire from large floods even became a subject of interest for distinguished political representatives and Habsburg ''caritas''. The author follows various depictions of disastrous events from the flood on the Váh in 1813 and a series of watercolours by Eduard Gurk, which served as the compositional inspiration for other artists, to work by the Bratislava studio of Eduard Kozics and his followers. The conclusion focuses on the case of painter Ladislav Mednyánszky, who often dealt with disastrous events and repeatedly went on journeys to the areas which they affected.
design by Bedřich Vémola
