Béla Iványi Grünwald „Girl with the cigarette”, 1935

Oil on canvas, signed twice lower left "GRÜNWALD B." and lower right "Iványi Grünwald B", inscripction on back

Framed: 95x75 cm (80x60 cm)

Béla Iványi-Grünwald (1867 – 1940) was a Hungarian painter, a leading member of the Nagybánya artists' colony and founder of the Kecskemét artists' colony. Iványi-Grünwald was keenly aware of the various currents of modernism that developed during his career. At first he was influenced by French naturalism. At Nagybánya, undoubtedly the most accomplished phase of his career, he focused on plein air and costume scenes. By this time his work had distanced itself from the influence of Bastien-Lepage to concentrate on the changing effects of atmosphere. He emphasized, for example, the mood produced by light at various times of the day and night and used extremely bright colours, not entirely typical of the Nagybánya school. His subjects were taken from his immediate surroundings and the human figure is shown as an integral part of the landscape. Iványi-Grünwald also taught in Hollósy's Nagybánya school until he took up an award in 1905 that enabled him to spend a year in Rome. In 1906 he held an exhibition of his works in the Ernst Museum in Budapest, and this event effectively announced the end of his Nagybánya period, although he remained there a few more years. A gradual change was brought about in Iványi-Grünwald's work by the influence of younger Hungarian painters returning from Paris and working in the style of the Fauves. More direct inspiration was provided by the exhibition of modern French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting held in Budapest in 1907; his paintings became more decorative and stylised, his outlines bolder, and his compositions based on flat shapes.