Ferenc Joachim

Ferenc JOACHIM (1882-1964), self-portrait, 1958, Budapest, Hungary. Oil on canvas, 49 cm x 63 cm. In Hungarian the name is JOACHIM Ferenc.

Ferenc Joachim (1882-1964) was a Hungarian (Magyar) artist painter who concentrated on portrait and landscape painting in the media of oil, water and pastel colors on the surfaces of canvas, board and paper. Ferenc Joachim was born on 21-May-1882 in Szeged, Hungary (at that time the Austria-Hungary Monarchy and Empire, also known as the Austria-Hungary Dual Monarchy) and died on 16-September-1964 in Gyula, Hungary, [1]. He studied painting in Paris, France and in Munich, Germany. His principal residences and studios were in his birthplace of Szeged, Hungary and in the national capital of Budapest, Hungary. In his native Hungarian (Magyar) language the surname or family name is listed first and therefore in his native language usage and format his name is Joachim Ferenc (see Footnote 1). A different biographical note from another source that is completely independent from this article can be found at the following website, [2] .

THE WORLD HISTORY CONTEXT

For historical perspective and context let us note the part of the world stage on which he lived. From the time of his birth in 1882 until 1918, that is for the first 36 years of his life, he was living in the Austria-Hungary Monarchy and Empire, also known as the Austria-Hungary Dual Monarchy. Prior to the start of World War I in 1914 this was a happy exuberant flourishing golden age for Hungarian artists and their arts. He lived through World War I from 1914 to 1918. At the end of World War I, the territory of the Austria-Hungary Monarchy and Empire was dissected into assorted separate countries in 1918 by the Treaty of Trianon which then defined the borders of the present day Hungary. From approximately 1920 to approximately 1944, that is for the next 24 years of his life, he was living in a constitutional monarchy of an independent Kingdom of Hungary with a Regent but not an actual monarch. This was a very conservative politically right wing regime which was extremely unfriendly and stifling to artists and the arts. From approximately 1936 to 1944 Hungary was usurped and coerced by the sympathizers and collaborators of the German nazis, a period also extremely unfriendly and stifling to artists and the arts. He lived through World War II from ~1939 to 1944. Finally from 1944 to the time of his death in 1964, that is the final 20 years of his life, he was living under the Russian communist invasion and occupation of Hungary. This was a very conservative politically left wing regime which again also was extremely unfriendly and stifling to artists and the arts. The Russian communist occupation was interrupted only briefly by the Hungarian people's popular uprising against the Russian communists, the ill-fated 1956 Hungarian Revolution of 23 October 1956. For the overview of the general artistic history of Hungary encompassing this 1882-1964 period see for example the Hungary section in the publications "The Dictionary of Art" (editor Jane Turner, in 34 volumes, 1996), Grove Dictionaries, New York, 1996, or also "Encylopedia of World Art," McGraw Hill, London, 1963 .

THE INDIVIDUAL ARTIST CONTEXT

His signature on his paintings have occurred in his Hungarian (Magyar) language usage format as Joachim Ferenc, Csejtei Joachim Ferenc, and with the abbreviation Cs for Csejtei as in Cs Joachim Ferenc, and with the abbreviation of F for Ferenc as in Joachim F, Csejtei Joachim F, and Cs Joachim F. The word "Csejtei" (of Csejte) was used as an honorific prefix amongst artists of Hungary in the first half of the twentieth century but its exact history yet remains to be explained here. Csejte refers to a historically famous castle. Csejtei may also have different spellings such as Csejthey. In the early part of his life he made many trips abroad from Hungary on scholarships to study painting. He studied with the famous Hungarian art educator Simon Hollósy, [3], at his private shool in Munich, Germany, and he also studied in Paris, France. He also periodically visited the Nagybánya Artists Colony, [4] , fomed by Simon Hollósy in Nagybánya in Transylvania. [5] It appears that during his stays in France his name was frenchified to François Joachim and during his stays in Germany his name was germanized to Franz Joachim von Csejthey. He was an enthusiastic exponent of the late nineteenth century concept inspired in Hungary, in Italy, in Germany, and in France of taking his painting easle out of the studio into nature and painting in nature, that is en plein air or equivalently alfresco . One of his most productive periods was on one of his sojourns to Marseilles, France and the surrounding south-of-France countryside and the Mediterranean seaside where he painted over a hundred canvases. His paintings were exhibited at the "Paris Salon" ("Salon de Paris") in Paris, France and at the "National Salon" ("Nemzeti Szalon") [6] in Budapest, Hungary, [7] . A small collection of Ferenc Joachim paintings are still in archival repository in the "Móra Ferenc Múzeum" in Szeged, Hungary. For example, in the year 2000 the "Móra Ferenc Múzeum" displayed on temporary exhibit a loaned private collection which contained a Ferenc Joachim painting titled "Boszorkánysziget," [8] . The present day "Móra Ferenc Múzeum" can be easily visited instantly on the internet at such websites for example as, [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] . All other paintings are in private hands, which occasionally have appeared in public art auctions in Hungary and the USA on the internet as demonstrated by the following websites: [13] , [14] , [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20]. In Hungary his residences and painting studios were in his birthplace of Szeged and in the national capital of Budapest. In his birthplace of Szeged, which is located on the major river Tisza and in the geographical Southern Great Plain or "Alföld" of Hungary, he was repeatedly active in promoting the arts in the region. Articles written in a 1910 publication of "Művészet" [21] , and in a 1913 publication of "Művészet" [22] show him together with other artists of the region actively promoting the arts in Szeged. An article [23] written for other unrelated historical review purposes, by coincidence shows documentation of Ferenc Joachim in April 1919 being a member of the committee of the then Szeged museum director Ferenc Móra to both save and catalogue the art collections of the museum following the ravages and chaos of World War I. Another document dated 15 January 1928, [24] , shows Ferenc Joachim to be a founding member of the "Alföld Artists Association" ("Alföldi Müvészek Egyesülete") in Szeged. In the year 2005 his ninety-two year old daughter Piroska Joachim has the following personal memories of her father Ferenc Joachim. He was an accomplished violinist but only played in private for his own personal relaxation and pleasure. He was also an accomplished singer in the opera genre with a rich baritone voice but again only sang privately for his own personal relaxation and pleasure. Naturally he was fluent in his native Hungarian (Magyar) language, and at the very least he was easily conversant in both French and German languages. He wrote children's stories as a personal hobby. He had a keen interest in science, engineering and technology which he satisfied by working on an invention requiring the miniaturized mechanical engineering knowledge of precision watchmakers. His interest in science was most likely fired by the explosively fruitful scientific times he was born in and living in, such as the inventions of the lightbulb, photography, the motion picture camera, powered airplane flight, psychoanalysis for studying the human mind, the effects of bacteria, the telegraph, the telephone, electric power generation, quantum physics, relativistic physics, and the list goes on. He had a voracious intellectual curiosity which he fed incessantly by avid reading of literature, history, science, newspapers. He had many friends and acquaintances amongst his contemporaries and colleagues in the arts including painters, sculptors, writers, and musicians. He had never renounced anyone for any reasons. He had always protected anyone seeking his assistance. The last twenty-five years of his life, from the onset of World War II to his death, he lived under extreme adversity and hardships due to the German nazi and then Russian communist occupations causing deprivations of basic human dignity and human rights, jobs, income, livelihood, artistic supplies and materials, artistic integrity. (Editorial comment: it is difficult to imagine or sense or convey the emotionally suffocating and intellectually numbing oppression of these times in Hungarian history; to simulate the atmosphere for yourself, think of sleep deprivation mixed with fear mixed with hopelessness mixed with anxiety for your family stretched out for over twenty-five years.)

THE FAMILY CONTEXT

Ferenc Joachim's ninety-two year old daughter Piroska Joachim remembers in 2005 the following details about her father's family. The parents of Ferenc Joachim were Ferenc Joachim and Emilia Metz (or Mecz ?) of Szeged, Hungary (at that time the Austria-Hungary Monarchy and Empire) and he had two brothers Jozsef and Károly, and four sisters Gizella, Mariska, Jolán, and Mici. This family including Ferenc Joachim was Roman Catholic. Some of his brothers and sisters were also artists in their own right, for example his brother Jozsef Joachim, [25], [26], [27], [28], was a sculptor and painter and his sister Gizella Joachim was a theater stage actress. It is believed that Gizella had lived a substantial part of her life as well as died in Paris, France. At this time, very little is known about the personal history of Ferenc Joachim between the time of his birth in 1882 and 1912, that is the first 30 years of his life. It appears that Ferenc Joachim was married twice in his life, the first time before age 30 and the second time after age 30. His second marriage started circa 1912 with Margit Gráf who was born in 1892 in Szőny, (or possibly in the adjacent town of Almásfüzitő), Hungary (at that time the Austria-Hungary Monarchy and Empire) and died in 1965 in Szentgotthard, Hungary. Margit Gráf was the daughter of Marton Gráf and Mária Stern and she had three brothers Moritz, Márton and Károly, and two sisters Rozsa and Julia. Ferenc Joachim with his wife Margit (born Gráf) had three children: one daughter named Piroska born in 1913 in Paris, France, and two sons, one also named Ferenc G. born in 1920 in Budapest, Hungary and the other named Attila born in 1923 in Szeged, Hungary. Their daughter Piroska was home schooled and privately tutored in literature, history and the arts. Their son also named Ferenc G. graduated from the "Eötvös Loránd University" ("Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem") with a "Diploma Biology" which is the equivalent of a Master's degree in the North American university system, [29] Their son Attila graduated from the "Hungarian Royal Fine Arts Professional College" ("Magyar Kiralyi Képzőművészeti Főiskola") where upon graduation he was hired by the college itself as a teacher thus beginning a career also as an artist and painter. Tragically, Attila Joachim (1923-1947) at age ~ 24 in ~ 1947, died due to injuries received at the hands of the sympathizers and collaborators of the German nazis. In fact a number of the brothers and sisters of both Ferenc Joachim and his wife Margit Gráf were persecuted or murdered by the sympathizers and collaborators of the German nazis during World War II, or, following World War II they were persecuted by the sympathizers and collaborators of the Russian communists. For one example, his brother Jozsef Joachim was chronically persecuted, [30] . For another example, Ferenc Joachim's sister-in-law Julia Gráf and her husband Zsiga Rosenberg and their two children daughters Naomi and Julia, were murdered by Hungarian collaborators of the German nazis, thus becoming holocaust victims in Budapest. Over 500,000 Hungarian murder victims, mostly but not exclusively of Jewish descent or heritage, are attributed to the German nazi holocaust in Hungary, [31]. (Editorial comment: the unstopable screaming pain here is that Hungarians murdered Hungarians based on alien ideologies imported from foreign countries.) His daughter Piroska had married and had three children. His surviving son also named Ferenc had married Eva Gross who was born in 1925 in Szeged, Hungary and they had six children. The daughter Piroska and her family and the son also named Ferenc and his family were refugees following the Hungarian people's popular uprising, the ill-fated 1956 Hungarian Revolution of 23 October 1956 in which Hungarian patriots and freedom fighters attempted to bring world attention and intervention to the foreign military invasion and dictatorial occupation by the Russian communists. The families were given asylum by and in Canada. The families subsequently finally settled in the USA. Ferenc Joachim's surviving son also named Ferenc died at age ~ 62 in 1982 in Fargo, North Dakota, USA where he used his anglicized name Frank G. Joachim. Ferenc (Frank) G. Joachim (1920-1982) was a biologist and entomologist with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Metabolism and Radiation Laboratory on the campus of the North Dakota State University at the time of his death. The wife of Ferenc (Frank) G. Joachim, Eva died at age 67 in 1992 in Fargo, Norh Dakota, USA. Both had their bodies cremated and their ashes cast into the Red River near Fargo, North Dakota. The son Ferenc (Frank) and Eva's six children, the grandchildren of the artist Ferenc and his wife Margit, survive them in the USA. Ferenc Joachim's daughter Piroska, who was a wife and mother all her life, still survives at age ninety-two as do all her three children, also the grandchildren of the artist Ferenc and his wife Margit. Seven of these nine grandchildren during their childhood had closely known and romped and frolicked with their grandparents Ferenc and Margit in Budapest, Hungary. It is worth stressing that the artist Ferenc Joachim was most importantly a "family man" as was his wife Margit a "family woman."

THE DEATH CONTEXT

In their old age infirmity, the artist Ferenc Joachim and his wife Margit (born Gráf) were moved to separate old age homes in Hungary, that is, Ferenc Joachim was moved to Gyula (town), Hungary where he died and was buried at age ~ 82 in 1964, and his wife Margit (born Gráf) was moved to Szentgotthárd (St. Gotthard in German), Hungary where she died and was buried at age ~ 73 in 1965. It appears that both gravesites with their human remains have been lost forever due to a combination of severe weather such as floods and lack of continuous care. At the time of this writing in 2005, Ferenc and Margit are survived by their ninety-two year old daughter Piroska, as well as by their total of nine grandchildren. Ferenc JOACHIM's paintings survive him in the world.

Footnote 1: In Hungarian usage the last name, also known as the family name, also known as the surname, in this case Joachim, is written as the first part of the complete name, that is, Joachim Ferenc. See "naming convention" and "name order" entries under the personal name page here in Wikipedia.