János Halápy memorial room

Take a look at the works of the painter, whose life and art were intertwined with the Lake Balaton region!

“I am an enthusiast of Lake Balaton, as its picturesque beauty is endless and inexhaustible.”

His art started out from nature, often with quite simple motives. He often painted the same theme many times in different versions. In addition to the Lake Balaton landscape, he was also preoccupied with flower still life, especially in the last stages of his life.

He started from a small village called Pórszombat in Zala County, and in the 1920s, the painter (1893-1960) traveled to Paris, to the contemporary capital of modern art, where the art of Braque, Matisse, Picasso influenced his development without his becoming an epigone of these geniuses, a sheer copier. He settled in Buda, but in the 1920s he also set up a studio in Balatonfüred, where he spent three or four months a year. He created his last painting, “Winter Sunshine” a month before his death, on wintery Lake Balaton.

“The lights of Lake Balaton and the flowers of its gardens live together in me. They give me strength and good humor for happy creative work.”

The János Halápy Memorial Room was opened in 1989 in the Balatoni Museum. The paintings were donated to the museum by the artist’s widow, Lili Halápy.