(Veszprém 1821–1883 Budapest)
Curiosity, after the ball, signed, dated J. Borsos (1)856, oil on canvas,
of octagonal form, 136 x 100 cm, framed, (W) 

Provenance:
Herbert Bartsch Collection, Vienna;
Dorotheum Vienna, 16 September 1969, lot 14;
Private Collection, Vienna.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Különlenyomat Müvészettörteneti Erkistö Li (2002) 3–4. számabol, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, no. 39, ill. p. 307 Borsos Jozsef. Festö es fotografus (1821–1883), Budapest 2009, p. 152, cat. 107.

We are grateful to Dr Gábor Bellák for his scientific assistance.

Josef Borsos (1821–1883) studied in Budapest and was a student at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts from 1840 until 1842. This period saw the initial development of his good reputation as a young artist. In the 1850s, he focused on painting genre scenes, which contemporary critics accused of having an immoral tone. This work, exhibited in Vienna’s Kunstverein in 1856 and subsequently purchased by Kaiser Franz Joseph I, focuses on the curiosity of three young ladies. One of the girls looks at the viewer with a mischievous gaze, while another young lady pulls aside the curtain covering a painting which is likely not suitable for the girl’s eyes. They are in a gentleman’s study, forbidden territory for them, and caught in the moment at which they are looking at some rather racy images. The topic of young ladies spending their free time looking at indecent images is subtly reflected in this piece by Jozsef Borsos.