Nagy, Lázár (1861 - 1923)

Painter, applied artist and teacher. Lázár Nagy studied art in Munich and Budapest, and he was a pupil of Bertalan Székely. He spent his early career as a graphic artist, making illustrations for magazines and artistic and historical books. In 1889 he was appointed a temporary lecturer in the Iparrajziskola art school, and remained on permanent status from 1897 to 1913, teaching decorative painting and geometrical drawing. In 1890, he was commissioned to paint the Entombment of Christ in the chancel of Tabán Paris Church, and in 1896, he painted the ceiling frescoes of the building of the Miskolc Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A major work of interior design was the first exhibition hall of the National Salon that opened at 54 József Boulevard in 1895, in an “intimate Hungarian style.” He regularly entered his designs for surface decoration and carpets in the competitions and exhibitions of the Applied Arts Association. He gained his most notable success at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair with a furniture suite executed by Endre Thék, an idiosyncratic, romantic work of folk-Hungarian Art Nouveau. This furniture also made successful appearances at the 1906 Milan International Exhibition and the 1908 Hungarian Exhibition in London. He turned mainly to painting in the 1910s, and regularly entered his genre and landscape paintings in exhibitions in the Műcsarnok gallery and the National Salon.