Ferenc Hatvany

Who was Ferenc Hatvany?

Baron Ferenc Hatvany was a Hungarian painter and art collector. A member of the Hatvany-Deutsch family, he graduated in the Académie Julian in Paris. His collection included paintings from Tintoretto, Cézanne, Renoir, Ingres and Courbet, most notably L'Origine du monde and Femme nue couchée.

Towards the end of the Second World War his paintings were looted by Soviet troops but some were ransomed by Hatvany. In 1947 he emigrated to Paris. In 1955 L’Origine du monde was sold at auction for 1.5 million francs.

Paintings that were looted from Hatvany's collection are still hanging on museum walls in Budapest, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod. Hatvany died in Lausanne in 1958.