Lady in polka dot robe (1932)

'Basch Edit stands high above the other exhibitors, with her strong talent and her well-established personality. Edit Basch also comes back to us through Paris, and Parisian art has left its mark on her personality. But as admirable as it sounds, this female painter, who should therefore be more impressionable than male painters, found her own individuality much sooner and much more thoroughly than other Hungarian painters who came to Paris. With the exception of István Farkas, who was the earliest to find himself. In general, there is not a single trait or colour in Edit Basch's painting that suggests a woman's hand, or even a lyrical idea, such as in the magnificent painting of the Iris Woman, in which the white iris is juxtaposed with the purple-clad woman, who herself looks like a dark velvet iris flower. It is only in the final results of these portraits, landscapes and still lifes, in their great and organic calm and condensation, that we feel the strengthening and form-solidifying influence of Cubism, because otherwise the whole picturisation is all balance, polished, hard-edged, and essentialised - it is rare nowadays to find such a pure look, without any superfluity and yet not the so-called "Cubism". It is rare to find such a painterly work without any superfluity, but with the pedantic soullessness of "absolute painterliness", but on the contrary: with the serene joy of mystery, colour and expression. It is a healthy art - self-conscious, convincing and delightful. Of the artist's thirty paintings, Mother Negro, Italian Couple, Woman in White, Child with Nanny, Sheikh Suleiman, and portraits of a writer and a poetess stand out as particularly serious works,' writes the Esti Hírlap ('Evening Herald') of the 1932 group exhibition. 

The Lady in the polka-dot robe is presumably the poet Sophie Török. Edit Basch and her family were very good friends with Mihály Babits and Sophie Török. Edit also made several portraits of the famous poet couple and their daughter Ildiko. The two families often met, and from photos and letters we know that in September 1932 the Babitses spent a few days in Nagyháton at the Basch family's country residence. The intimate portrait was probably taken on one of these occasions.