Éri István (szerk.): Egry József Emlékmúzeum, Badacsony

An outstanding figure of our twentieth century painting, József Egry was born at Újlak (in the county of Zala) in 1883, as the only child of poor peasant parents. The young Egry could not afford to study at an art school, he had to work for his living. The only thing he could do for his own education was to study the Hungarian paintings-first of all those of Mihály Munkácsy-in the Budapest National Museum. At the age of 21 he attended the Academy of Munich, this attempt, however, proved a failure. The year 1906 was spent in Paris where the depths and widths of art opened up for him. In 1907 he matriculated at the Budapest School of Arts which he soon had to leave due to his love for freedom and his adherence to his own principles that tolerated no influencing of any kind. From 1901 onwards he exhibited in all the shows and galleries, his painting grows both in number and importance. In this period he was preoccupied mostly with simple working people. Apart from the Hungarian masters he was deeply impressed by Millet, Van Gogh, Puvis de Chavannes, and Meunier. In 1911 he spent a considerable time in Belgium. His otherwise realistic pictures bear the mark of secession and symbolism. During the first world war he got seriously ill. For a follow-up cure he was advised to move to the Balaton district. First he stayed at Keszthely, later he settled down at Badacsony. Apart from a few trips abroad and stays in Budapest he lived and worked here till his death in 1951. In his new pictures the relations between man and nature, life and universe were uniquely represented through the sunshine and the hazy atmosphere of Lake Balaton, unobserved so far by artists of Hungary or other countries. In 1922 he made his debut with his new canvases at various exhibitions in Budapest. Four years later he earned international fame in Berlin and Dresden. In 1945 he was awarded the national gold medal, and became Kossuth-prize laureate in 1948. In the same year his works were exhibited at the Venice Biennal. In the early fifties his works met with the lack of appreciation due to the rather rigid attitude to art, but with the settling ideological issues he regained attention and sympathy. His paintings represented Hungary in the Brussels World Exhibition in 1957. The growing number of Egry-shows and exhibitions marks his ever widening fame and popularity, and the crowning of this success came in 1971 with a commemorational exhibition in the Hungarian National Gallery on twentieth anniversary of his death.