KERNSTOK, Károly
(1873, Budapest - 1940, Budapest)



Painter. He took up his studies at the School of Design. He was a pupil of Simon Hollósy in Munich from 1892 and at the Julian Academy in Paris in 1893-95. In 1896 He returned to Hungary and became a pupil of Benczur's school for three years. His early genre-pictures ("Agitator", 1897, "Haulers", 1987) were products of Hungarian critical realism. Under the influence of the Nagybánya painters, he was in search of plein air applications of realism ("Plum Pickers", 1901).

After his studies in Paris in 1906, his style changed and he started to paint large scale decorative compositions and stylized postimpressionistic pictures emphasizing forms and lines ("Riders along Water", 1910). He painted decorative glass windows for the Schiffer-villa in 1911 and for the County Hall in Debrecen in 1912 when he finished "Hunters", a fresco for the School of Trade and Commerce.

One of the key-figures in the Soviet Republic of Hungary, Kernstock emigrated in 1919 and lived in Berlin until 1926 when he returned to Hungary. "The Last Supper", an expressionistic picture, and some naturalist landscapes came from this period. The last period of his life saw the influence of Etruscan painting ("The Rape of St. Helen", 1933, and "Burial", 1934).His graphic works together with his copper engravings are of great signifance. His lectures and articles were often published in art journals and newspapers.



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