Short piece on Imagery

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Getting pieces together, getting the picture: the Gypsy cello boy at Ballaton, Hungary, 1931
Last month I matched three existing early pieces of art: ‘Gypsy Man with Beard and Blanco Coat-of-
Arms’ (and tools), ‘Woman with children and Blanco Coat-of-Arms’ and the four grouped together,
obviously a family. Initially I only knew of the first print which is part of the Rijks Museum’s original
collection (1816), engraved by early ‘dry needle technique’ and ascribed to ‘the Masters of the
Amsterdam Cabinet’ (1475-1480, Mainz). Where the other two prints are precisely kept in collection
remains unknown to me but they roam on internet and that’s how I finally got the picture about this
ensemble (see earlier Slide Share, in Dutch). I find these early works and titles amazing, as the period
covers exactly the transition in middle European regions between initial welcome of the ‘Egyptians’
as pilgrims authorized by written Credentials (Netherlands, the city of Deventer: 1420) and the
subsequent exclusion from rising cities through verdicts and round ups against ‘Heathens’
(Netherlands: 1500-1750).
Membership of a Guild? A Bow
The Boy with the Cello
This puzzling exercise reminded me somehow to another fragmented story: the Gypsy boy carrying a
cello, on the long rural road. A photograph made in 1931 by Eva Besnyö. First time I saw it was on the
cover of the book “And the violins stopped playing”, by Alexander Ramati (1985, Dutch edition 1988,
subtitled “A story about the Gypsy Holocaust”). Two years after I’d read it, someone send to me a
review of a work on Eva Besnyö’s oeuvre (Willem Diepraam, 1993). There he was, the Boy, in a
frontal pose, resting on his magnificent curled cello. For many years I did not pay attention to the
accompanying text, until I came across another book, this time by the photographer herself
(“Children 1930-1987”, Eva Besnyö, 1998). Now I was surprised to find the Gypsy Ensemble pictured:
a man (on alto-viola), a boy and a lad on violin, and … the kid, obviously the youngest of the group
but doing the toughest job. He even got a name, Janos, as I learned when reading the earlier review
again.
The review in the old newspaper depicted the set of three photographs.
“Time and again one sees the little bloke from behind. He walks ahead on a dirt road, somewhere at
the Balaton Lake district, the inner sea of Hungary. The cello he is carrying on his shoulder might be

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too heavy for him. And the load lies so deserted ahead, only cynics wouldn’t have taken care of this
boy Janos”.
Now we know how the boy really looks like - even got his name. “A Gypsy kid with the attitude of an
accomplished musician and a melancholic look of a snoring barkeeper. He belongs to that little street
orchestra, another photograph says”.
“Lips sealed, as if he already knew by then: ‘one better play than talk’. God knows how he got through the War”

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Eva Besnyö (* Boedapest, Hungary 1910 - † Laren, the Netherlands 2003)
Portrayed in 1928 respectively 1997
Final remarks
Although Eva Besnyö’s oeuvre is extensive and diverse, the photograph of the ‘lonely trudging boy’
grew out into the most famous one. An icon in many ways - ‘O Lungo Drom’, the Long Road’ in the
Romani language. A metaphor for the harsh conditions in which Roma and Sinti -or ‘Gypsies’ in vox
populi- survive and carry on, struggling for a better future to their children.
The review suggests Eva Besnyö might have recognized herself somehow –as an adolescent- into that
boy. Could it be that Janos as a grown up reflected on his youth the same way as Eva later did (“I
can’t remember that I ever felt really happy, growing up”)?
Personally I prefer amalgamation or synthesis above analysis, looking for clues about belonging and
identity. The boy might not have been so lonely after all. At home more siblings possibly remain, his
mother, too, grannies, aunties and uncles. As another icon of the Holocaust -Settela Steinbach- was
not alone either in that wagon. Too often, Roma and Sinti are considered as ‘People without History’.
Peter Jorna, Houten
September 24, 2015