Olga Máté (1 January 1878 – 5 April 1961) was one of the first women Hungarian photographers, most known for her portraits. She was known for her lighting techniques and used lighted backgrounds to enhance her portraits and
still life compositions. In 1912 she won a gold medal in
Stuttgart at an international photography exhibit. Perhaps her best-known images are portraits she took of
Mihály Babits
Mihály Babits (; 26 November 1883 – 4 August 1941) was a Hungarian poet, writer and translator. His poems are well known for their intense religious themes. His novels such as “The Children of Death” (1927) explore psychological pro ...
and
Margit Kaffka
Margit Kaffka (10 June 1880 – 1 December 1918) was a Hungarian writer and poet.
Called a "great, great writer" by Endre Ady, she was one of the most important female Hungarian authors, and an important member of the Nyugat generation. Her writ ...
. She was also an early suffragist in Hungary and during the
Hungarian White Terror assisted several intellectuals in their escapes.
Biography
Olga Mauthner was born on 1 January 1878 in
Szigetvár
Szigetvár (; hr, Siget; tr, Zigetvar; English language, English: Islandcastle; german: Inselburg) is a town in Baranya (county), Baranya County in southern Hungary.
History
The town's Medieval fortification, fortress was the setting of the S ...
, during the
Austro-Hungarian Empire to Hanna (née Spiegel) and Lőrinc Mauthner. There were two daughters and four sons in the family and changed their name from the German spelling to the Hungarian form, Máté. Originally Lőrinc Mauthner made his living as a merchant, while his wife did tailoring piecework, but when the family moved to
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, the father gave up his trade and opened a sewing factory. There were few business opportunities open to women but Máté studied in Budapest to become a photographer.
Career
In 1899, Máté opened a studio in the central business district of Budapest at No. 21 ''Fő utca'' (Main Street). After working for several years to obtain sufficient capital in 1908, Máté went to Germany to study in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
with
Rudolf Dührkoop
Rudolf Johannes Dührkoop (1 August 1848, Hamburg – 3 April 1918, Hamburg) was a German portrait photographer; one of the leading early representatives of pictorialism.
Biography
He was born to Christian Friederich Dührkoop, a carpenter, an ...
and with
Nicola Perscheid
Nicola Perscheid (3 December 1864 – 12 May 1930) was a German photographer. He is primarily known for his artistic portrait photography. He developed the "Perscheid lens", a soft focus lens for large format portrait photography.
Life and care ...
, who at that time was in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
. She studied at least two years in Germany and began participating in exhibitions in 1910. Her photographs showed the influence of Dührkoop, as instead of formal settings, her subjects appeared more natural and were placed against lighted backgrounds, to focus the eye on the darker subject of the work. The following year, she exhibited in London at the London Salon of Photography.
Máté returned to Budapest and began working on a variety of subject matter including advertising, nudes, urban landscapes, but by far her most known works were portraits. In 1911 she began contributing to the journal ''A Fény'' (The Light). In that year's publication, about half of the photograph's submitted were by four Hungarian photographers, including Máté,
Erzsi Gaiduschek, , and
Frigyes Widder. In 1912, she opened a studio at No. 12 ''Veres Pálné utca'', (a street in Budapest named after the educator and feminist
Pálné Veres), and lived in an apartment above the studio, located on the building's sixth floor. In the fall of that year, Máté married the philosopher and academic , a widower with two children. Their home became a meeting place for intellectuals to gather and discuss ideas.
Her circle of friends had always included artists, such as ,
Noémi Ferenczy
Noémi Ferenczy (18 June 1890 – 20 December 1957) was a Hungarian artist, best known for her tapestry designs. She wove her own tapestries, and was influenced by the Nagybánya art movement.
She was born in Szentendre, the twin sister of sculpt ...
, and and his family. After her marriage to Zalai, it expanded to include the "
Sunday Circle", ( hu, Sonntagskreis) of Hungarian intelligentsia, like
Béla Balázs
Béla Balázs (; 4 August 1884 in Szeged – 17 May 1949 in Budapest), born Herbert Béla Bauer, was a Hungarian film critic, aesthetician, writer and poet of Jewish heritage. He was a proponent of formalist film theory.
Career
Balázs was th ...
,
Paul Dienes,
János Fogarasi,
Arnold Hauser *Arnold Hauser (art historian)
Arnold Hauser (8 May 1892 in Timișoara – 28 January 1978 in Budapest) was a Hungarian-German art historian and sociologist who was perhaps the leading Marxist in the field. He wrote on the influence of change in ...
,
Gyula Juhász,
Dezső Kosztolányi
Dezső Kosztolányi (; March 29, 1885 – November 3, 1936) was a Hungarian writer, journalist, translator and also a speaker of Esperanto. He wrote in all literary genres, from poetry to essays to theatre plays. Building his own style, he used ...
,
György Lukács
György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and aesth ...
,
Karl Mannheim
Karl Mannheim (born Károly Manheim, 27 March 1893 – 9 January 1947) was an influential Hungarian sociologist during the first half of the 20th century. He is a key figure in classical sociology, as well as one of the founders of the sociolo ...
, and others. She took portraits of many in her circle, as well as society figures. Two of her best-known works were portraits of
Mihály Babits
Mihály Babits (; 26 November 1883 – 4 August 1941) was a Hungarian poet, writer and translator. His poems are well known for their intense religious themes. His novels such as “The Children of Death” (1927) explore psychological pro ...
and
Margit Kaffka
Margit Kaffka (10 June 1880 – 1 December 1918) was a Hungarian writer and poet.
Called a "great, great writer" by Endre Ady, she was one of the most important female Hungarian authors, and an important member of the Nyugat generation. Her writ ...
. Máté continued exhibiting, appearing at the International Photographers show in Stuttgart, where she won a gold medal with József Pécsi in 1912. In 1913, she was invited by
Rosika Schwimmer
Rosika Schwimmer ( hu, Schwimmer Rózsa; 11 September 1877 – 3 August 1948) was a Hungarian-born pacifist, feminist, world federalist, and women's suffragist. A co-founder of the Campaign for World Government with Lola Maverick Lloyd, her ...
to take photographs at the
. She not only took photographs but was a supporter and organizer for the Hungarian feminist movement.
Máté exhibited in 1914 at the Professional Photographers Society of New York State and later that year, Zalai was drafted to serve in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. He was taken prisoner in December 1914 and died of
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...
on 2 February 1915 in a POW camp in
Omsk,
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
. Máté struggled to raise his two children, but she cared for them and felt the later death of his daughter deeply. At the
end of the war, with the collapse of
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
, the country struggled against decline. ''A Fény'', in which Máté had published since 1911 was closed. After the
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Socialist Federative Republic of Councils in Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Szocialista Szövetséges Tanácsköztársaság) (due to an early mistranslation, it became widely known as the Hungarian Soviet Republic in English-language sources ( ...
was defeated, György Lukács had been ordered by
Béla Kun
Béla Kun (born Béla Kohn; 20 February 1886 – 29 August 1938) was a Hungarian communist revolutionary and politician who governed the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919. After attending Franz Joseph University at Kolozsvár (today Cluj-Napo ...
to remain behind with
Ottó Korvin
Ottó Korvin (Born Ottó Klein, 24 May 1894 in Nagybocskó – 28 December 1919 in Budapest) was a communist politician of Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian B ...
, when the rest of the leadership evacuated to Austria. Lukács and Korvin's mission was to clandestinely reorganize the communist movement, but the mission was impossible. Lukács was forced into hiding to avoid the
communist purge and Máté hid him in her home. After Korvin was captured, Lukács fled to Austria. Máté also helped
Jenő Hamburger flee along with others. These actions resulted in her censure by the courts.
During the 1920s and 1930s, her compositions were transformed, moving from the studio to outdoor settings with
sepia tones replacing the sharp black and white contrasts of her earlier works. The subject matter also changed from the elite classes to working classes. In 1922, she did an exhibit for the
Museum of Applied Arts and then in 1934 shared a studio with her student,
Ferenc Haár. When Haàr moved to Paris in 1937, Máté closed the shop and the following year went to work in the studio of Marian Reismann.
Though one of Hungary's earliest professional women photographers, Máté died in obscurity. She died on 5 April 1961 in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, Hungary and was buried in the
Farkasréti Cemetery
Farkasréti Cemetery or Farkasrét Cemetery ( hu, Farkasréti temető) is one of the most famous cemeteries in Budapest. It opened in 1894 and is noted for its extensive views of the city (several people wanted it more to be a resort area than a c ...
of Budapest.
Legacy
In 2006, Csilla E. Csorba, director of the Petofi Museum of Literature, published a book ''Máté Olga fotóművész'' (Olga Máté Photographer) with Helikon Publishing in Budapest to recapture the history of Máté's contributions to photography. The hosted an exhibit of her work in 2007. In 2009, Csorba took an exhibition of Hungarian women photographer's works on tour in New York City and
Washington, D. C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
for the year. It was the first time several of the artists' works had been seen in the United States. Máté's ''Still Life with Eggs and Mushrooms'' (1920) was praised for communicating beauty with everyday objects.
References
Bibliography
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External links
Máté's image of Kaffka
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mate, Olga
1878 births
1961 deaths
Photographers from Budapest
Portrait photographers
Hungarian feminists
Hungarian women photographers
Hungarian photographers
Burials at Farkasréti Cemetery