Biography
Tivadar Kosztka Csontváry was a Hungarian painter. One of the most important masters of modern Hungarian painting. His work is quite unique, a chapter in the history of Hungarian art. He was a solitary painter, who was not understood by his Hungarian contemporaries, and his significance was only recognized after his death. He originally worked as a pharmacist, but sensing a talent for painting, at the age of twenty-seven he decided to become a painter due to a vision. After that, alongside his career as a pharmacist, he consciously prepared himself to work as a painter and to create the existential conditions for this. He studied at the painting school of Simon Hollósy in Munich from 1894. After that, he went to Karlsruhe, and in 1896 he continued his education at the Julian Academy in Paris. At that time, he already made long study trips, painting in Switzerland, Italy, and Dalmatia.
He traveled regularly, and painted his most significant paintings in the Middle East. He created relatively few, about a hundred, larger works. Everywhere he searched for the "great motif" that he would have considered the basis of his life's work. In 1907, he exhibited his gigantic canvases in Paris, and he also had a show in Budapest, but the significance of his painting was only recognized long after his death. His eccentric lifestyle and - increasingly pronounced towards the end of his life - visionary-prophetic allure also contributed to this. His diary entries, recollections and religious-philosophical reflections, mainly made in the 1910s, constitute an important addition to the study of his art. His painting is associated with expressionism and post-impressionism, but he did not belong to any of the clearly defined artistic movements. He classified himself among the "Sunset Painters". His identification was also made more difficult by the fact that he kept his paintings. His heirs wanted to sell his works at a bargain price, like wagon covers, which were bought by Gedeon Gerlóczy at the last minute.