Nagy, István (1873-1937)

He was a graduate of the Kolozsvár teacher training college, worked as a teacher for two years, and learnt to draw from 1894 to 1897. He visited Munich in 1898, Paris in 1900 and Rome in 1902, then returned to Transylvania. He was the military painter of the 22nd "székely" infantry during World War I. Later he did mostly dramatic portraits and landscapes in charcoal and pastels. From the early 1920s onwards, he painted pictures of Baja, Szentes and Kecskemét. He spent the last years of his life in Baja from 1931, suffering from serious tuberculosis. His art represented a height of Hungarian realistic painting. His charcoal and pastel drawings of landscapes and portraits are characterized by a puritan style and creativeness. His art still exerts a major impact on Hungarian painters.

Source: Hungarian National Gallery