Biography
Róna Emmy (Róna Emy, D. Róna Emmy, Hungarian painter, graphic artist and illustrator. Born to a bourgeois family, the daughter of Béla Róna, a writer, journalist, critic, and Borbála Rosenfeld (Betti). Her sister Klára Róna was a painter. Her teacher at the Industrial Drawing School was Manó Vesztróczy. Her first drawings were published in the magazine Színházi Élet in 1921. She was a member of the New Artists Association (ÚME), whose exhibitions she regularly participated in.
In 1925, she had a joint exhibition with her sister Klára Róna in Paris. Here, she presented her illustrations for poems by Endre Ady, Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine. From 1926 to 1928, she lived in Paris, working as a staff member of a satirical magazine, drawing caricatures, and further developing her drawing skills at the Colarossi School.
From 1928, she lived in Budapest again. As a graphic artist and she worked as an illustrator for newspapers, magazines and book publishers. In 1929 she won a prize in the Athenaeum Publishing House's illustration competition. On February 2, 1929, she married Gyula Dechmann, a civil servant, in Budapest, from whom she divorced in 1935. In the 1930s, she also worked as a poster designer. As a scholarship holder, she studied fresco painting with Ferruccio Ferrazzi in Rome between 1934 and 1936. She became a member of the Italian Society of Fine Arts, in whose exhibitions she participated several times. In 1939, she won a graphic design prize (gold diploma) at the New York World's Fair.
She is best known for her illustrations for children's books, perhaps best known for her drawings for Fazekas Anna: The Deer of the Old Lady. But her illustrations for János vitéz, The Most Beautiful Tales of One Thousand and One Nights (in several versions), Bambi, László Arany's, Andersen's, Bazsov's, Grimm's etc. tales, or for example, for the storybook of Piroska Tábori: Dugó Dani, were equally popular. She illustrated more than 400 books. Her drawings and graphics were featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions in renowned galleries, cultural centers, and libraries. In recognition of his work, he received the Meritorious Artist Award in 1983 and the Children's Award in 1987.
