Biography
Born in Subotica on 11 June 1860. He completed his secondary school studies there and in Budapest, and for three years he attended the Drawing Teacher Training School, where Bertalan Székely was his teacher. In 1880 he received his diploma as a drawing teacher. He then spent two years in Munich and one in Paris to complete his studies. Finally, on his return home, he was a member of the Benczúr School for three years. From the age of 16, he exhibited at the Kunsthalle, and his paintings were reproduced in the newspapers of the time. He worked with Károly Lotz, who helped him to paint the ceiling of the Opera House. In 1886 he began his work as a paedagogue. From 1890 he was a teacher of drawing at the Second District High School in Budapest until 1900, when he retired. At first he participated in exhibitions with animal and life pictures and idylls. He also painted a number of landscapes and some portraits, among which the portrait of Mihály Déry, the parish priest of Budapest-Rókuskórház in the Budapest Museum. From 1891 onwards he painted only murals, decorative works and altarpieces. His first solo mural was the ceiling of the theatre in Freetown, and his first major decorative work was the aquarium for the Millennium Exhibition, entitled 'Sea Bottom'. The majority of the works of this period are ecclesiastical.
