REVESZ IMRE

He was born on 21 January 1859 in the north-east of Hungary in the town of Sátoraljaújhely. In a short time, the family moved to Vynohradiv, where they bought a house with a large garden. His drawing skills were revealed at the gymnasium of Debrecen, where his first teacher was an artist-pedagogue Gripenkerl. Therefore, Imre studied in Satu Mare (Romania) at Carolina Palna, from 1875 to 1877 – at the Vienna Academy of Arts at Leopold Müller, from 1877 to 1878 – at the Institute of the Arts in Budapest, where his teacher was the monumentalist Bertalan Sekel. From 1882 to 1884, the artist improved skills in the studio of his famous fellow countryman Mihály Munkácsy in Paris. I. Revesz is considered to be one of his best of students.

In 1903, the artist was invited to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, and in 1921, he became the head of the creative base in Kecskemet.

From 1921, I. Revesz lived and worked in Vynohradiv. At the same time, he remained the head of the university artistic colony in Kecskemet, operated under the auspices of the Hungarian Academy of Arts. I. Revesz occupied this position until 1932, but after retirement, he continued coming to Kecskemet as a mere member of the plein airs until 1939.

The winner of several prizes. For his painting "Tavern", I. Revesz received a prize named after M. Munkácsy in the amount of 6 thousand francs. This canvas was subsequently bought by Queen Elizabeth. For his works, he received prize medals at the exhibitions in Paris (1889) and Munich (1901).

As noted by art historians, the artist is one of the artists-innovators who boldly broke the ostensible canons of official academicism. He skilfully adopted the traditions of realistic democratic art and preserved them during the years of the bourgeois culture decline and spread of formalism.

I. Revesz - the artist of analytical orientation, a profound connoisseur of life of ordinary people, peasants, their customs and traditions. He created a series of painting and graphic compositions that conveyed the unique national colour of people’s life. In his works, the artist with deep psychological content depicts the characters of the peasants, shows their strength and beauty, events of the Hungarian revolution. To fully reveal the content, the artist skilfully used various means, including restrained colour palette, expressive volume modelling, and clear drawing. He used coal, chalk, watercolour, and pastel.

In 1900, the graphic and painting works of the artist were chosen to illustrate the two-volume edition of the poems by Sandor Petefi. It is these etchings, drawings and other works of Revesz that became the classic of the Hungarian art.

Imre Revesz died on 23 September 1945 in Vynohradiv, where he was buried.

At the turn of the 40s and 50s, the workers of the Transcarpathian Museum of Art started collecting the artist’s paintings and drawings.  The museum immediately purchased 30 works of the master. In 1989, I. Revesz' memorial exhibition was held in his hometown Sátoraljaújhely. In 1994, Uzhhorod hosted a jubilee exhibition of his works from the museum and private collections.

In 1990, it was founded the Union of Artists named after I. Revesz, which regularly holds exhibitions and plein airs.

Now the works of Imre Revesz can be found in the largest museums of Hungary – Budapest, Kecskemet, Debrecen, and Szeged. In addition to the homeland, the artist's canvases decorated the Tretyakov Gallery, the Hermitage, and numerous private collections.

In Vynohradiv there is a street and a school named after the artist. In 1983, on the artist's grave, it was installed a bronze bas-relief, created by the Kyiv masters according to the project of Mykola Ihnatyk (it was abducted in 2000).