At the end of the 19th century a lot of young Hungarian artists studied in Munich, the centre of academician historical painting. Simon Hollósy began his studies in 1878, at the Royal Academy of Art. At the beginning of his career he preferred depicting the life of the peasants in genre paintings. Nevertheless, he soon exceeded the Munich stereotype and his works were defined by a technical knowledge and refined rendering of material which couldn't be compared with the works of his contemporaries working in the traditional spirit. Afterwards, the barely 30 years old artist was made suddenly famous by his Cornhusking (1885). In 1886, following the bequest of his friends, he opened an internationally acknowledged Free Art School (Julien-Academy). The future Nagybánya school was made up of students of Hollósy János Thorma, István Réti) and the artist friends gathered around him (Béla Iványi Grünwald, István Csók, Károly Ferenczy).
The art of this circle could be connected with the international tendencies of naturalism. The naturalism was an artistical principle for them, which meant the rejection of academicism and romanticism. The youth gathered around Hollósy broke away from romantic and academic cliches and were concerned with reality, nature, and life instead. The concepts of nature and emotion became their motto. Nature was the most important theme, which had to be rendered with a religious devotion. This is why their depicting naturalism, which considered every detail to be equally important, had lyrical, emotional tones.
From the technical point of view, their art betrays the influence of Jules Bastien-Lepage, who is considered rather mediocre in our days. The mother-of -pearl toned, refined, and slightly stylized, mystical naturalism of the French painter seemed fresh and direct in the atmosphere of Munich academicism. His pictures represent the careful solution of plein-air problems. Impressionists were already present at the Munich exhibitions, but the young people looking for new ways of expression assimilated the more simple, perceivable version. Smooth grays or blue nuances replaced the black of the shadows. They used carefully analyzed tones. They avoided the decorative contrasts and built on the harmony of equivalent parts. The naturalism of these pictures was kind of artificial plein-air. The artists had theoretical reasons when they loosened the rigid light of the ateliers. They practiced painting in the nature only in their sketches. Hollósy himself analyzed only the light that penetrated through the window: The Troubles of the Country, Zrínyi's Charge on the Turks from the Fortress of Szigetvár. Károly Ferenczy was the one who accomplished the most when analyzing the surface-changing effects of the light: Bird Song, Self-portrait (1893), and Orpheus.
The ethical matters they were concerned with betray the influence of the realist writers (Zola, Ibsen). Their works of art contain their ethical stand; they suggest their social involvement. They were interested in the conflicts of humanity. They often chose social themes rendered with much sentimentality: János Thorma Suffering people, Béla Iványi Grünwald: Shepherd and Peasant Woman; Károly Ferenczy: Gardeners; István Réti: Bohemians' Christmas Abroad. The depiction of the human figure and its psychical characterization was considered to be very important. Novelistic tones weren't rare either.
The circle of Hollósy intended to continue these two directions. They were looking for a dramatical realism, which was more interested in ethical matters than the sentimental genre painting. They wanted their art to deal with the real problems of Hungarian society. Besides this, they were looking for the specifically Hungarian resolution of the questions of plein air and impressionism so as to make it a factor of the national art. For resolving these problems, Munich was not the ideal setting of course. This way, Hollósy considered returning home to Hungary as early as 1895.