River Bank with Trees (1930)

János Nyergesi was born in Nyergesújfalu and grew up in the neighbourhood of Károly Kernstok. He took him under his master's care and through him he became acquainted with the greatest figures of Hungarian progressive art. Kernstok had Nyergesi enrolled in the Haris Intermediate Free School, from which he was drafted in 1915. In the early 1920s, he went to Paris to study and sell his paintings, and after his return he became a member of the New Society of Fine Artists (KUT). After his first exhibition in Budapest, Ernő Kállai noticed Nyergesi's talent and described his works as 'expressive naturalism'. His favourite technique was watercolour and ink. His early painting Waterfront with Trees shows the influence of Kernstok and the Eight.