Background
János Tornyai was born on January 18, 1869, in Hodmezovasarhely, Hungary, into the family of day labourers.
János Tornyai was born on January 18, 1869, in Hodmezovasarhely, Hungary, into the family of day labourers.
Janos studied at the School of Decorative Art in 1886 - 1888, then was a guest pupil of Bertalan Székely, Károly Lotz and János Gregus in 1888 - 1889. After that, he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1894 where he was influenced by Mihály Munkácsy's art.
After his studying, János visited Germany and Italy in 1897, then returned to Hódmezővásárhely. It was difficult for him to keep body and soul together, and he had a studio only from 1903. He started to collect folklore products together with Gyula Rudnay and Béla Endre and they founded a school in Hódmezővásárhely to save folk pottery. He lived in Mártély from the 1910s onwards where he painted a series of landscapes on the Great Plain. Then he moved to Budapest in 1919. He worked in Szentendre for a few months in 1933 – 1934.
First János was Munkácsy's follower in portraying peasants' lives. His major works from this period were "Rákóczi in Rodostó", painted in 1904, "The Outlaw's Love", painted in 1907, and "Miklós Nagy Bercsényi", painted in 1908. "Heritage" inspired him to paint landscapes with delicate colours, such as "Well-Sweep" and "Hungarian Fate." In his late Szentendre period, colours became lighter and he was engaged in plein air, which can be seen in his painting "Woman in Green Coat", created in 1932 – 1934.
János became interested in the Great Plain around 1904 and from then on he made several pictures about farmsteads of violent brushwork and swinging style. Hódmezővásárhely was the place he always returned to after his journeys to Budapest, Paris and Szentendre, and he spent his last years nearly, in Mártély. He died on September 20, 1936. In 1984, 718 of his pictures were found under the floor of his studio. Now these pictures are in the Tornyai Museum of Hódmezővásárhely.
Winter Landscape with Violet Lights
View at Szentendre
Bolting Girl
Cortyard in Sunshine
Interior
Window of the Atelier
Lesson on the Farm
Sitting Nude from the Back
Interior with Curtained Window
The Legacy
Farm on the Great Hungarian Plain
Autumn Morning
Woman Standing in a Door
Farm with shadoof
Making a Bunch of Flowers
Woman With Goat
Great Tree at Mártély
On a seacoast
Young Woman in the Atelier
Gloomy Hungarian Fate
Wheatland with Woman of Shawl
Clouding over the Great Hungarian Plain
On the Bench
János Tornyai adhered to the artistic traditions of Realism and Post-Impressionism.
