Birdsong

Károly Ferenczy was the leading figure of the unfolding and consummation of plein air painting in Hungary. He was the most outstanding artist of the group and style known as the Nagybánya school — so called because the group founded an artists’ colony in Nagybánya (today Baia Mare, Romania) in 1896.

After years of studies abroad, he settled with his family in Szentendre, close to Budapest. When he attended Simon Hollossy’s art school in Munich, he was drawn under the influence of Jules Bastien-Lepage for a time and made his first works at home in this style. The four years in Szentendre comprise a separate chapter in Ferenczy’s oeuvre. He picked his subjects from everyday life, showing the figures in ordinary activities. In the spirit of the painting traditions of Munich, he depicted genre scenes in his canvases but he deliberately avoided stories with a point to them. He watched his figures from afar, concentrating on states rather than actions. A clearly composed world painted with puritanical simplicity appears, the figures being enveloped in a strange sadness and lyricism.