Biography
János Tibai Takács graduated in mathematics, physics and history at the Pedagogical School of Buda. After completing his studies he became a teacher at the civil school in Hajdúszoboszló, then he taught at the civil school in Hatvan and from 1911 in Újpest. In 1906, his paintings were exhibited in the National Salon, where his works were subsequently shown in several exhibitions. In 1914, at the outbreak of the World War, he enlisted for military service as a soldier and was appointed as a military painter of the 30th Hungarian Infantry Regiment. Several of his portrait drawings of Hungarian soldiers were published in the journal Külügy–Hadügy ('Foreign Affairs - War Affairs'), which appeared during the war. He retired as a civil school teacher in 1922 to devote himself exclusively to painting.
He was a successful portrait painter: several local and national associations and organisations commissioned him to paint portraits. He painted the portraits of the Pauline monk Ányos Pál, the song and lute composer Lóránd Fráter, the poet Mihály Szabolcska, the composer Árpád Balázs, the poetess Elemérné Papp-Váry, the architect and member of parliament Gyula Petrovácz, General József Bem and, on the occasion of the 1938 Eucharistic Congress in Budapest, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII). In 1932, an oil painting of the poet Géza Gyóni was unveiled in Gyóon during a national ceremony.
He also made illustrations for school textbooks and was the illustrator of the booklet "Let's get to know Budapest!", published several times in the 1930s, which describes the main sights of the city. Under the title Birthplaces of our Greats, he painted the birthplaces of dozens of our historical greats, and this was also published in a series of postcards. His main artistic objective was to capture the image of old Tabán before 1933. To this end, he walked the old, winding, romanticised streets and squares of Tabán, and his neo-impressionistic depictions of the main landmarks, street scenes and scenes of life give us a glimpse of this bygone world.
