Janos Tornyai (1869-1936)

Aliases: János Tornyai; Johann Tornyai

Professions: Painter

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  Tornyai János 1869-1936 Twilight 23×27 cm oil,

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  Tornyai, Janos (1869 - 1936) Winter Starting

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  Tornyai Janos (1869-1936) Alfoldi taj

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Janos Tornyai Biography

(b hódmezovásárhely, 18 jan 1869; d budapest, 20 sept 1936). hungarian painter. he studied at the budapest design school from 1886 to 1889 and from 1894 to 1896 at the académie julian in paris. after a study trip to germany and italy in 1896–7 he settled in hódmezovásárhely. tornyai’s early genre pictures were calm, balanced compositions in bright colours. his greatest work, inheritance , is a symbolic depiction of the hungarian great plains peasantry (see great plains painting): he worked on variations of this painting for more than 30 years (e.g. inheritance , c. 1904; hódmezovásárhely, jános tornyai mus.). some of his genre pictures illustrate the aspects of composition with which he was concerned (e.g. taking off the boots , 1906; budapest, n.g.). in the 1910s he turned to landscape painting, using sombre colours, dramatic contrasts and typical great plains motifs in such works as louring sky (c . 1910; budapest, n.g.). his painting woeful hungarian fate (c . 1910; budapest, n.g.) reveals a dramatic passion and expressive tension similar to inheritance , the landscape elements bearing an overemphasized symbolic content. his history pictures, such as rakóczi in rodostó (1904; budapest, n.g.), were monumental in conception. in 1912 he moved to budapest. while at baja in 1928–9 his style changed, as is shown by the works he painted during his stay in the szentendre colony in 1933–4. he started using fresh new colours and many new themes based on the colony’s park and interior. tornyai and his artist friends strove to develop the artistic life of their home towns. they established maiolica and clay factories in hódmezovásárhely and also formed the great plains artists association in 1928. in 1934 an exhibition of tornyai’s work was held in hódmezovásárhely and the tornyai society was founded. the jános tornyai museum in hódmezovásárhely, which houses collections of ethnography, archaeology and great plains painting, was founded in 1951. in 1984 a collection of 717 of his paintings and drawings, believed to be lost, was found under the floor of his widow’s flat, including more than 300 of his baja pictures, which were painted in the lighter, brighter colours of his later szentendre period.

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