Fery Veronika szerk.: Fery Antal élete, munkássága, alkotásainak jegyzéke (Miskolc, 2005)

The life and work of Antal Fery by Dr. Imre Soós

culture. He engraved the portraits of great historical figures, writers, poets and artists in wood, but brilliant pictorial compositions appeared on his prints, Hungarian monuments, historic townscapes, even protected trees and plants. He was an excellent wood engraver. This was his main genre, though he also produced lasting work in drawing, water colours even mosaic pictures. Apart from his confident handwork, natural patriotism, warmth and rarely shown ironic humour made his art so characteristic that in the rich source of ex libris in the world his works shine out. Antal Fery was awarded the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic for his lifework. I'd like to add some of the artist's own thoughts as he looked back on his life. "Everyone in Szerencs knows that my ancestors didn't come to Hungary at the time of the Conquest. They came here from Moravia when the Szerencs Sugar Factory was under construction in 1888. There were ten of us children in the family, seven boys and three girls. Three of the boys learnt type-setting, three became lathe operators. I learnt the tinsmith's trade in the factory from 1923 till 1925. I was an apprentice when I went to Budapest on a scholarship from the Szerencs Sugar Factory." Further on he explains that of Hungary's thousand years his family were granted a hundred. The seven Fery boys were soldiers for a total of 30 years. The family paid in blood too because one of the boys was killed in the first world war. The second fell at the age of 43 at the beginning of the second world war. "My name is of French origin. My ancestors emigrated to Moravia or rather Hungary at the time of the French Revolution. Among my predecessors there are Germans too, so I'm a mixture of Gallic, German and Slav. I think in Hungarian, feel in Hungarian and pray in Hungarian."