Pál Szinyei Merse

Who was Pál Szinyei Merse?

Pál Szinyei Merse was a Hungarian painter and politician.

Born in Szinyeújfalu, Hungary, he learned painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich under Karl von Piloty. He was a friend of Wilhelm Leibl and Hans Makart. His are some of the earliest works of Impressionism in Hungary and Central Europe.

At the 1873 World's Fair in Vienna he won a medal with his painting Bath House.

Szinyei was also an active politician. He was elected to the parliament of Hungary where he fought for the modernization of art education. He died on 2 February 1920, just four months and two days before the Trianon treaty, in Jarovnice, which passed the town and all what is now known as Slovakia to the newly formed Czechoslovakia.