Gyula Aggházy (20 March 1850 in Dombóvár – 23 May 1919 in Budapest) was a Hungarian genre painter and art teacher.
Biography
As a young man, he was equally interested in music and art and, for a short time he was a student at the music conservatory and played violin at the National Theater. In parallel, he completed model drawing exercises as a student of Ferenc Újházy, and finally committed himself to painting.
Between 1869 and 1874 he attended the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. He studied in the painting department as a student of Carl Wurzinger, Karl von Blaas, Eduard von Engerth and Peter Johann Nepomuk Geiger.
He then trained for another three years at the Munich academy under the leadership of Sándor Wagner. He started working in Munich in 1873, and due to the success of his pictures sent home, he received a state scholarship until 1876.
In 1874 due to a serious illness, he returned to Hungary and after a short stay in Szolnok (a popular gathering spot for painters), he travelled to Paris where he was a pupil of Mihály Munkácsy.
Aggházy studied at the academy during the day and was a violinist in a suburban theater in the evenings. He lived with Artúr Tölgyessy, whom he also taught to play the violin. (They met Tölgyessy for the next time in Szolnok in 1875.)
In the summer of 1875, he returned to Hungary, worked for a while in Budapest, and then at the beginning of 1876 he moved to the artist colony in Szolnok, where he spent almost a whole decade studying Hungarian folk life. Her painting Gypsy Woman Card Thrower was made in Szolnok and was exhibited for the first time in Budapest in 1877. His work 'Terefere' was exhibited in the Salon in Paris in 1883, then it was bought for the Hungarian National Museum, and it is currently in the Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest). In 1882, his picture 'Lacikonyha' was bought for the king's collection.
In 1884, he permanently settled in Budapest in his studio-villa which was designed by Gyula Benczúr, with a Munich influence.
In 1885, he spent two months in Italy, studying the fine art collections of Venice, Florence and Rome, the works of the old masters. Among his works presented at the national exhibition in Budapest in 1885, Mosónők was awarded the grand exhibition medal. In 1886, 'No ne izéljen!' was bought for the king.
In 1897, he became a Professor at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts.
His famous students at the School of Model Drawing and then at the College of Fine Arts included Lipót Ács, Gizella Barabás, Gusztáv Hénel, József Jászay, Kata Kalivoda, Alfréd Lakos, Albert Nyáry, Sándor Pataky and more. Sándor Pazsiczky (1881–1955), Jenő Keményffy, and Oszkár Mendlik respected him as a master.
He excelled as a photograper. His glass negatives are in the custody of the family, the enlargements made of them can be found in the Data Library of the Hungarian National Gallery along with his genre works in the Naturalist style which were very popular.
Main exhibitions
- He participated in the exhibitions of the Transylvanian Fine Arts Society (Cluj-Napoca, 1883, 1890, 1902, 1903)
- He is a permanent exhibitor and founding member of the National Salon, and has also participated in many rural exhibitions.
- Memorial exhibition. Art gallery. On the 3rd anniversary of his death. (with Ferenc Újházy and József Róna, Budapest, 1922)
- Memorial exhibition (Szolnok, 1952).
- In July 2000, Gyula Aggházy's painting in Tihany was included in the exhibition "Hungarian landscape, with a Hungarian brush" of the Bencés Abbey Museum. The exhibition was by Ferenc Mádl.
- In 2000, an exhibition was organized in the Mihály Munkácsy Museum in Békéscsaba on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the painter's death, entitled "Spiritual heirs of Munkácsy's art - disciples, followers".
Selected paintings
References
- ^ Brief biography @ Magyar Elektronikus Könyvtár.