Anna Normann-Ehrenfels. Sketchbook
1871
Valpovo (Walpacher), Slavonia, in today’s north-eastern Croatia, paper, cardboard, pencil drawing, black chalk, tempera, 31 x 29 cm
Signed on all drawings with the artist’s first name: Anna
The sketchbook contains 52 sheets depicting flowers, fruits, studies of two female portraits and vedutas of her native Valpovo and the surroundings, all made in pencil. Three sheets have a precise date of the drawings origin – gezeichnet im Mai / Juny 1871 (made in May/June 1871).
The drawings were made by Countess Anna Csáky, neé Normann-Ehrenfels, before the marriage, probably as part of her education in her native town which she had left after the wedding with Count Vidor Csáky de Körösszégh et Adorján. She moved to Spišský Hrhov where the married couple had built a neo-baroque mansion.
Rudolf Csáky. Caricatures from 1835
Smokovec, the High Tatras, paper, pencil drawing, 22 x 28,7 cm
signed at the bottom right hand corner: RUD pinx Schmecks 835 / Von Conten Rudolph Csaky gezeichnet
Two caricatures depicting male figures which the artist must have been fairly familiar with. He recorded their typical stature and the way of walking, tailcoat clothing, with top hats in their hands or on their heads, walking sticks or umbrellas in their hands. Several similar caricatures have been preserved in the State archive in Prešov, the Spiš archive in Levoča and the Csáky fund in Spišský Hrhov.
Hedwig Friedländer. Portrait of Anna Csáky
1899
Spišský Hrhov, oil painting on canvas, 197 x 127 cm, in the original frame 210 x 135 cm
signed at the left hand bottom corner: Hedwig Friedlaender 1899
The paintress depicted Anna Csáky as an emancipated, self-confident woman, sitting in an armchair at a coffee table with an interesting still life behind, with a burning cigarette and an ashtray. Anna Csáky (1854 – 1927) came from an aristocratic family of Normann-Ehrenfels. On 12 October 1878 she married Count Vidor Csáky (1850 – 1932), a son of Augustine Csáky and Iphigenia, neé Prónay. They had chosen a new neo-baroque mansion in Spišský Hrhov as their residence. The married couple had themselves painted for the mansion family art gallery by the talented Viennese paintress Hedwig Friedländer (1863 – 1916), daughter of the painter Friedländer, a Knight of Malheim. According to the memory book, the paintress came to the mansion in Spišský Hrhov on 20 November 1899 and, in addition to a drawing of the mansion and her signature in the book, she made this non-conformist portrait of the Countess there.