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Tihanyi was one of the founders of the Eights, a group of artists. Members of the group established modern European trends of art (Cézanne's art, cubism and expressionism) in Hungary. Their art included elements of transition because they applied neither the reductive approach of cubism, nor form distortions of expressionism to emphasize form consequently. They stayed within the realms of figurality and integrated new trends into their art in a diffuse way.
Lajos Tihanyi, the most significant portrait painter of the group, painted major figures of art life (Bölöni, Lajos, Fülep, Kassák and Kosztolányi). He managed to integrate character portrayal with cubism which highlighted structure.
His female portraits are character portrayals based on colours and forms. The portrait of Magda Leopold has a great virtue: Tihanyi united elements of cubism and expressionism with a particular psychological character portrayal and bright colours. Forms, shadows - the folds of the shirt and projections of the face - turn into geometric shapes while the green of the background, the plush cover of the armchair and the most intensive colour, the white of the blouse, lead the eye to the figure. Magda Leopold's portrait is certainly the best female portrait of Tihanyi's and this is not an overstatement.
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