Diary entry written by our cherished collaborator, Mariëlle van Luijk.
“I have lived such a wonderful life, since I have always been surrounded by flowers” – said Bori Kisjankó (1876-1954), who is remembered as “the queen” of Matyó folk art.
She belonged to a select group of women who were called “íróasszonyok” which roughly translates as “the writing women.” You see, not everyone in the village was able to compose the drawings of the famous Matyó embroidery, but those who were descendants of furriers, would usually be blessed with this extraordinary talent. This is not a coincidence, since the girls who grew up in these workshops were exposed to the fine craftsmanship that they were day in day out surrounded with. Along with the boys who passed on the craft, the girls could also learn the skills of pattern design, drawing, and the rules for using colors.
The same applies to Bori Kisjankó, who allegedly, at only 4-5 years old, was responsible for distributing the silk strings to the workers, learning the rules of color use and color harmony. According to family memories, she sewed the first Matyó rose on the corner of her apron. She memorized the patterns from the elaborately embroidered leather coats called “kuszu” and embroidered sheets and sewed them herself.
When she attended elementary school, she was already a serious help to her mother, who often asked her daughter out of school before Easter to help sew the festive adult aprons, and the festive boy costumes. When entering adulthood, she became more and more famous in her hometown, resulting in many requests for drawing the patterns of the Matyó embroidery.
After the millennium exhibition at the turn of the 20th century, the Matyó folk art suddenly saw a sudden rise in popularity by the middle and upper class in both Hungary and foreign countries, which resulted in a more commercialized production of the Matyó embroideries.
Kis Jankó Bori was among the first to design products specifically tailored to the needs and tastes of the upper and middle classes such as bedspreads, decorative pillows, piano covers and round tablecloths. This did not mean that she focused solely on this new market, for she also remained true to the traditions of the village, such as designing aprons and men's shirts. She was very aware of the two worlds in which she had to operate and kept them strictly separate.
At the end of her life, this fragile but always cheerful "Matyó writer," who was even inspired by the miraculous dreams she had, was capable of producing as many as a hundred different variations on floral motifs. Her famous "100 Roses" painting contains the flowers and rose variations that she collected and reimagined throughout her life - from real flowers, from the motifs of the short leather coats, and from her own imagination.
Source Hungarian Museum
She often said that she could not and did not like to write, because in her opinion, flowers were easier to shape with a pencil than actual letters. One of her admirers recalled: "She drew like the greatest writers who have their entire work already in their heads... she had the whole composition in her head, she just had to write it down.”
Sources:
Fügedi Márta: Mítosz és valóság: a matyó népművészet
Past and Present of Mezőkövesd
MATYÓFÖLD, A HÍRES MEZŐKÖVESD - Dala József
Closeup of the Voriagh "Timea" blouse in white
"Timea" blouse in white
Closeup of the "Timea" blouse in black
"Timea" blouse in black