The idea of an art school of Nagybánya came from the private academy of Simon Hollósy who, together with his pupils and some friends, had been dreaming of modernising Hungarian art: they wished to join new trends. Travelling to Nagybánya in spring 1896, they were impressed with pictures of Szinyei Merse at the Millennium Exhibition. Arriving in the mining town of Transylvania beautifully situated, they gradually developed a style inspired by plein-air. However different personalities they had, identical training, working together and similar ideas developed a team spirit finally.

The Nagybánya experiences made their styles uniform in a particular respect. It was Károly Ferenczy, the most mature and consequent of all, who had the most important role, and who was in close friendship with Béla Iványi Grünwald. He was a follower of neos, a movement of young artists travelling from Paris to Nagybánya after 1906. He moved to the art school of Kecskemét after 1909 to which he felt attracted. István Réti was the theoretician of the Nagybánya school. Oszkár Glatz, István Csók and Tivadar Zemplényi joined them for periods of time. After the death of Károly Ferenczy, János Thorma and István Réti became leaders of the group. Of the younger generation András Mikola, Sándor Ziffer, Tibor Boromisza and painters of the group The Eight joined Nagybánya temporarily or life-long.