Mendlik Oscar

Laureate of the Art Prize of 1896. Member of the artistic association "Pulchri Studio" (The Hague), art-club "Kunst zij ons doel" (The Hague) and Rotary Club. He organized and participated in numerous charitable events, cultural events, musical evenings, lectured on literature and philosophy.

Oscar Mendlik was born in the suburbs of Uzhhorod (Radvanka district) in a family of teachers. Oscar's father taught mathematics and admired art, while his mother taught music. Thus, the future artist received his first knowledge of painting and music from his parents. The Mendlik family moved to Budapest. Oscar and his brother Aladar entered the gymnasium. An artist Ede Ballo gave the first private drawing lessons and prepared Oscar for entering the Budapest Academy of Drawing in 1890. At the Academy, a young man studied painting with an artist Bertalan Székely. For excellent studies, Oscar was paid a scholarship of 300 forints. At that time, this amount was very significant and enabled the young man travelling a lot, which he used for his creative trips to Dalmatia (Croatia), Albania, and Greece. Since 1894, Oscar was studying at the art school of the famous German-Hungarian artist Karl Anton Paul Lotz. Karl's advice, as well as trips to the Adriatic, were decisive in choosing the fine art genre and directly influenced the young artist’s life. Oscar for the first time saw the sea and fell in love with it forever. So the artist began to admire the seascapes, and in 1896, at the art exhibition his painting "Banging of Waves Near Ragusa" won a bronze medal. In addition, the artist also received an artistic award. As the winner of the award Oscar Mendlik went to Rome, where he lived and worked for free at the Palazzo Venezia studio from 1898 to 1900. There, she met a Dutch sculptor Julie Mijnssen, who by the way was the first woman to receive the Prix de Rome. In 1900, they married in Amsterdam. In 1901, the couple's son Ferenc was born, Oscar and his wife finally moved to the Netherlands. In 1904, they settled in Aerdenhout in their own house with two art studios.

In painting, Oscar Mendlik adhered to the academic style, painting from nature, the realism of images. He was enchanted by the sea and ocean views. He was not interested in the ships, saying that he was not an "artist of the boat". Unlike his contemporaries - the Dutch artists - the emphasis in the works of Oscar Mendlik were primarily made on the element of water, its nature and character. The image of the endless sky and sea smoothness prevailed on the artist's canvases. Sometimes he also painted rocky seas, seaside towns and beaches. At the beginning of the 20th century, critics called him a prominent seaside painter.

Oscar Mendlik was also a remarkable portraitist who masterfully mastered the character and appearance of a person on canvas. There are about 260 portraits painted by Oscar in the Netherlands.

A sailor-cartographer and art critic Grad de Graaff wrote a monograph "Oscar Mendlik, an artist with sea feet". He explored Mendlik's paintings on maritime themes and spans parallels between maritime landscapes and portraits written by the artist.

Special were the paintings by Oscar for the church of St. Anthony in Aerdenhout.

The artist travelled a lot until the very old age and at the first best opportunity he made large sea trips on cargo ships. He twice made a round-the-world trip, crossed all the oceans. During these trips, he made a lot of sketches, made with oil and watercolour, and on his return, he transferred emotions to the canvases.

Oscar Mendlik's personal exhibitions were held at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1917); Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (1928), at the city gallery in Harlem (1941), Kunstzaal Van Wisselingh & Co, Amsterdam (1941).

The artist died in the Netherlands on 9 February 1963 at the age of 92.

Oleksandr Nikitchuk