This account journal from the estate of Artúr Sebestyén was processed during our digitization and collection management work. Using this valuable document, it is possible to reconstruct the operation of his office and his years working with Ödön Lechner, and so it is our “Artwork of the Month” for February. HMA MPDC Museum Department, inv. no.: 70.016.61.
Our institution’s Museum Department processed ca. 10,000 artworks since the summer of 2021. The plans, photographs, and documents have been digitized with the aid of our Digitalization Department and the data related to the objects have been recorded. The processing of the Ödön Lechner estate, which contained 65 plans and 15 photographs, also represented a portion of this work. Following this, the processing of the collection from Artúr Sebestyén was also completed, during which the present author recorded the data from the account journal the architect maintained together with Lechner between 1908 and 1910. In addition to the joint work of the two architects, the operation of the office can be reconstructed from the document, while it also sheds light on a few other interesting historical details.
It can often be read in monographs dealing with Ödön Lechner’s life work that numerous recognized Hungarian architects began their careers in his office. For example, Lipót Baumhorn worked for ten years in the office at 39 Rökk Szilárd Street that was owned by Gyula Pártos. After the split with Pártos, the master architect often entered design competitions with his followers, partnering with them many times and always moving into their offices. Based on the documents that can be found, Lechner partnered with Béla Lajta in 1901 after leaving the Pártos office. Lechner lived with his family in the Prymayer building at 9 Sas Street during these years and worked in Béla Lajta’s office at 42 Dohány Street until 1906, but he did not follow his partner when the office moved to 10 Pálma Street. At this time, the master maintained close connections with architects such as Marcell Komor and Dezső Jakab as well as Albert Kálmán Kőrössy and his former partner Artúr Sebestyén. In the 1910s, Lechner was registered at the building designed by József Vágó at 4 Gutenberg Square, where Vágó himself also lived. The account journal found at our Museum Department in the estate of Artúr Sebestyén helps in identifying the diverse oeuvre of Lechner.
Lechner and Sebestyén’s joint office between 1908 and 1910
In 1908, Artúr Sebestyén, who was working on the designs of the Gellért Hotel and Baths, partnered up with Ödön Lechner, who was on the jury for the building’s design competition. Not long before this, Lechner had been staying in Paris, living at 33 Avenue Henri Martin, when he let the renters of his home in Pest know that they needed to move out of the apartment. From this and from the initial date of the account journal (begun jointly in June of 1908), it is clear that the master architect may have returned home due to the partnership. Ödön Lechner and Artúr Sebestyén received the commission to design the psychiatric hospital in Kecskemét in the spring of 1908, so this may have provided the occasion to start their joint office. In 1904, Artúr Sebestyén had set up his office in the building he himself had designed at 20 Kmetty Street, and this is where Ödön Lechner worked as well, while his residence remained at 9 Sas Street.
According to the entries in the account journal, numerous drafters worked in Sebestyén and Lechner’s office, including the master builder Ármin Krausz and Miklós Kaszab, who later was a designer in New York in the 1920s, as well as the drafters Jenő Dorman, Imre Göndör, and Szilárd Brankovics. Quite a few designs for competitions and commissions must have been completed over the two years, reflected by the numerous entries listing expenses for food and drink, pencils, photocopies, and cars. The designs for the psychiatric hospital in Kecskemét were sent to the Ellinger bookbinders on the 15th of November 1908. The work most certainly demanded a more spacious and better equipped office, so they began remodeling the design studio in Kmetty Street. These remodeling expenses were recorded in the account journal in January of 1909, with items such as “electricians and lights, construction of plaster walls, masonry work, metalwork, parquet flooring, glazing, stove fitting” alongside one another.
The photocopies for the Pest Domestic First Savings Bank competition were made in December of 1908. Partial expenses were paid for Aladár Kiss, whose brother, Géza Kiss, was a partner of Sebestyén’s former design partner, Albert Kálmán Kőrössy starting in the 1910s. The competition designs for the teachers’ training school in Sárospatak were completed in May of 1909, and the employees of the office at this time, in addition to those mentioned above, included Frigyes Werner, who later worked together with Dénes Györgyi.
It comes to light from the account journal that they provided oranges to the drafters for working at night because they believed at that time that tropical fruits had a stimulating effect. Entries are less frequent starting in 1910. The designs for the Erzsébet statue were completed in February, but the partnership between the master architect and Artúr Sebestyén ended in April. However, Ödön Lechner’s final grand vision, the idea for a water tower in Kecskemét, was also created at this time. A drawing that is similar to this structure that was never built can also be found in the Sebestyén estate.
A few months after the dissolution of the partnership of Artúr Sebestyén and Ödön Lechner, in October of 1910, the master architect’s son died and a broken Lechner gave up on the idea of the water tower. He wrote his biography in 1911 at the request of Béla Málnai and then József Vágó took him under his wing. During the time of the creation of his final designs and his last projects that were completed, the master was living at the Gutenberg home of Vágó until his death.
The historical data listed in the account journal will not only spur further research into Lechner, but also the creation of a monograph on Artúr Sebestyén, which may aid in clarifying the career of the master.
Eszter Baldavári
Sources:
Ödön Lechner estate, HMA MPDC Museum Department
Artúr Sebestyén estate, HMA MPDC Museum Department
Ferenc Vámos estate, HMA MPDC Museum Department
Az Ujság (The News), 14 July 1908. Private construction permits
Eszter Baldavári: Lechner Ödön „irodái”: történeti rekonstrukció egy pénztárnapló alapján (Ödön Lechner’s “Offices”: Historical Reconstruction Based on an Account Journal). Magyar Építőművészet 2022/3, 63-67.
Károly Lyka: Remények (Hopes). Uj Idők, 1904, volume 10, nos. 27-52. 636.
Magyar Építőművészet, 1910/8. 1. 32.
Zsuzsa Mendöl: Málnai Béla (Béla Málnai). Budapest, 1974.
Művészet 1910/9. 7. 307.
Pesti Hírlap, 24 January 1909.
Pesti Napló, 5 May 1908. Construction of a steam bath in Pancsova (Pančevo, Serbia)
