A smallholder painter’s dwelling and studio shrine
Past and future of the Lajos Kunffy Memorial Museum in Somogytúr
MúzeumCafé 38.
It is said that Lajos Kunffy was a competent painter, but not an outstanding one. Yet that image changes as soon as you encounter the Kunffy Villa in Somogytúr. The place reveals Kunffy to be a virtuoso master. Memorial houses generally present a small slice of a lifetime’s oeuvre. It also often happens that between the death of an artist and the opening of a memorial museum the building concerned has functioned in different ways and so reconstruction can involve only a small amount of original furnishing. The Kunffy Villa is different. The essence of his oeuvre is here in terms of both quantity and quality. Furthermore, the building functioned as a museum even during Kunffy’s lifetime and so luckily historical turning points and changes of funding bodies haven’t resulted in major transformations. The small village of Somogytúr lies far from main roads and large towns. There is no need to search for the mansion since the renovated buildings and impressive gate immediately come into view. Kunffy studied painting in Pest (besides legal studies), then in Munich and Paris at the Julian Academy. He finally settled in Somogytúr after 1934, donating some of his works to the new Kaposvár Museum which was processing the bequest of Ödön Rippl-Rónai. Being Jewish, in 1944 he and his wife were taken to the ghetto in nearby Tab, from where, while still in confinement, he tried to get his works sent to Kaposvár. A couple of months later he was freed following the intercession of Miklós Horthy. He survived the rest of the war in the air-raid shelter of the Gellért Hotel. His property was pillaged and many paintings disappeared or were destroyed. Two years later his extensive land comprising 1420 acres was nationalised. Kunffy was able to keep only his dwelling, studio and the surrounding grounds.