Szatmári Gizella: Signs of Remembrance - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2005)

■ Keliejj plaque commemorating Adóit Fényei

A former disciple of Bertalan Székely, Adolf Fényes had spent some time studying his art in Paris and Weimar before returning to Hungary in 1894. The grim realism of his turn-of-the-century series The Lived of the Poor diminished somewhat in Szolnok, where his plein air paintings became lighter in tone and brighter in colour. At the opening exhibition of the National Salon in 1907, he exhibited together with the Nagybánya painters.

With his serene optimism largely gone by the end of his life, he painted canvas after canvas exuding a mythic, Biblical, and fairy-tale atmosphere.

His fellow-painter Lipót Hermann recalled his figure in words combining simple objectivity with loving care: "He was a well-liked figure of Pest life, respected by all for his decency and versatile talents — his knowledge, his wit and good humour enchanted his followers. The young listened to him as to an oracle... He was a great teacher... those who had the privilege of learning from him had the most important things in life to learn." Hermann concludes with loving humour that "if we loved you in spite of all your virtues, wisdom and accomplishments, Uncle Fényes, then you must really have been an extraordinary person.”

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