Körösfői Kriesch, Aladár (1863 - 1920)

Painter and designer. He began his studies at the School of Artistic Drawing, gaining a diploma as a drawing instructor. From 1886 onwards he was a member of the Society of Fine Arts. Between 1889 and 1893 he travelled in Germany and Italy; after 1897 he studied mural painting at Károly Lotz’s master’s course. He completed his first large-scale work, entitled the ’’Diet of Torda”, for the Millennium Exhibition. He moved to Gödöllő in 1901, furnishing his home with furniture, wallpaper, and Torontál carpets of his own design, thus ’’laying the foundations of the only organized society of the Hungarian Art Nouveau, the Gödöllő colony of artists". He took part in the project to survey and study Transylvanian folkart, organized by Dezső Malonyai, the author of the work "Hungarian Folk Art”; also, he joined the painters’ summer colony at Diód, where Hungarian artists discovered Transylvanian folk art and crafts. He designed and executed frescoes, mosaics and tapestries. As head of the Gödöllő colony of artists, he became a honorary professor at the National School of Applied Arts in Budapest from 1907 onwards, becoming a full professor in 1920, just before his death.