Bihari Sándor was one of the greatest Hungarian genre painters. After studying in Vienna and travelling in Paris, he scored the first big success of his life in 1866; "In Front of the Judge" won the grand prize of the Hungarian National Fine Art Society and was purchased by Emperor Franz Joseph. As a result of this success, everybody expected him to paint genre scenes, and it was difficult for him, too, to shift his attention to other art forms. In accordance with the requirements of genre painting, his first period was characterized by the so-called "Munich Realism": the composition of his paintings served the exact depiction of the story and he used local colours. Later in his life, especially during his last years which he spent with the Szolnok artist Colony at the Great Hungarian Plains, his style changed in the direction of plein-air painting. He almost achieved impressionistic colour effects.