Twilight Gardens

Born in Hungary in 1874, Janos Gabor Stein began his studies at the Berlin Academy of Painting. He continued his training in Paris. He decided to take a break and travelled around Europe, where he adopted Symbolist tendencies.  On his return, Janos Stein studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, where he was a pupil of Karoly Lotz (a painter renowned for his monumental frescoes). 
At the beginning of the 20th century, the artist enjoyed success, with regular exhibitions at the Kunsthalle, several prizes and a growing number of monumental commissions (murals for Mór church and Eger cathedral). The forgotten artist's entire artistic heritage was rediscovered in Budapest in 2017. 
Stein, a follower of the conservative and academic pictorial tradition, is distinguished by his precise compositions and meticulous brushwork. His art strongly reflects the influence of his master Karoly Lotz.
Our painting, produced in 1898, was presented at the Budapest Winter Exhibition that same year. It is said to represent part of the Versailles estate. In the midst of this enigmatic landscape and abundant nature, a statue of Apollo is enthroned, seemingly watching over this forgotten sanctuary. At the time, it reflected admiration for the classical heritage. At the end of the 19th century, there was renewed interest in this movement and its aesthetic values. 

The two-part staircase plays a central role in the work. The twilight reflected in the stagnant water reinforces an impression of serenity, and also recalls the Romantic landscape tradition of the first half of the 19th century.  In this work, we feel that nature predominates and takes over from the remains of a civilisation in decline. 
By capturing a feeling of abandonment and nostalgia, this painting reveals all the poetry of Stein's work, and could evoke a quotation from Goethe, who said that nature is a call to the unlimited and that the spirit is capable of perceiving the inexpressible in it.