Tapestry - Village Couple (Homecoming)

This tapestry with a calm, peaceful atmosphere is one of the pieces exhibited at the 1900 Paris International Exhibition. It was hung on the wall of a gentleman's drawing room, designed by Ödön Faragó and made by József Bernstein and son. Its style is close to contemporary painting, inspired by everyday events of peasant life, and the beauty of the Hungarian landscape. The peasant couple is on their way home from harvest, walking along the curving path leading from the right bottom corner of the picture, to the small, distant village that appears at the end of the road upper at left. The diagonal composition is still picture-like, yet the unshaded colours outlined with brown contours, the bright light reflected on the wavy surface of the creek, the sedge bunches rising up from the water, the slanted, knobbed trunks of trees as well as the application of vivid yellow, green and rust-brown are partly intended to represent the vibrating atmosphere of a sunset, but also partly to characterize the decorative trends of a new style.