Csontváry Museum

11 Janus Pannonius St.

Opening hours:
 
Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m - 18 p.m.
Closed on Mondays

The exhibition of Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka (1853-1919), perhaps the most eccentric painter in the history of Hungarian painting, was opened in 1973, in a neo-Renaissance building built at the turn of the last century.
The Csontváry oeuvre, as for chronology and genre can be divided into distinct periods.
The first period is characterized by early sketches and portraits.
The next period includes works created during 1902 and 1903 in Jajce, Mostar, Castellamare, Selmecbánya (today Banska Stiavnica), Szigetvár and Hortobágy.
The monumental work of „Baalbek” is a beautiful example of plein air, while „Mary’s well in Nazareth” reflects the painter’s pursuit for an individual style. The”At the entrance of the Western Wall in Jerusalem” and „Great Tarpatak in the high Tatras” are two masterpieces created through the reinterpretation of the genre conventions of group portrayal and landscape painting. These paintings are - almost without exception - mature, major works. One of his most significant masterpieces, an emblematic summary of his oeuvre is the „Lonely cedar”, a symbolic portrayal of the artist himself.
The „Riders by the seahore” painted in 1909 is the latest piece of the oeuvre presented here. Charcoal drawings, allegorical scenes and sketches made in the 1910s mark the last of his creative periods.