Hunting (Around 1900)

Anral Szirmai attended the Drawing Teacher Training School for three years, where his professor was Bertalan Székely. 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 in Budapest, and his paintings were reproduced in the newspapers of the time. He assisted Károly Lotz in the ceiling painting of the Opera House. In 1886, Szirmai began his work as a pedagogue. From 1890 he was a teacher of drawing at the Second District High School in Budapest until his retirement in 1900. 

At first he participated in exhibitions with animal and life pictures and idylls. He also painted a number of landscapes and some portraits, such as portraits of Ferenc Rákóczi II, Lajos Kossuth and Michael Déry. From 1891 onwards, Szirmai painted mainly murals, decorative works and altarpieces. His first solo fresco 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. 

Towards the end of his life he lived in the countryside in seclusion. The painting you see here, Hunting, was probably painted around the turn of the century. It may have been during a deer rut in September, as suggested by the yellowing trees and leaves, which contrast with the landscape and river in the background, painted in aerial perspective. Still, the scene is given a sense of intimacy by the fact that the hunter and his hound seem to be a close-knit pair.