Fine Art Collection
Fine Art Collection
Fine Art in the ResoArt Collection
“Art collecting is a unique creative journey, with each step revealing a new and compelling story. A collection also reflects the collector’s personal path to self-discovery. Along the way, you encounter countless pieces, fall in love with many, and begin to see the potential in them — the desire to draw closer to the objects, their stories, values, and the emotions they evoke.” — András Szabó.
The ResoArt Foundation manages a collection of more than 300 visual artworks, where classical masterpieces harmoniously coexist with pieces from the Nagybánya School and well-known contemporary artists. Two central figures in the collection are the utterly distinctive József Egry, known as the Painter of Lake Balaton, who defies categorisation, and Csaba Vilmos Perlrott, who began his artistic career in Paris under the mentorship of Matisse. The collection also includes works by modern classical artists such as István Zámbó and László Lugossy, further enriching its diversity.
József Egry – Painter of Lake Balaton
Born in 1883 into a peasant family of day labourers, József Egry was initially self-taught. With the support of Károly Lika, he spent a formative year in Paris and later studied at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts alongside Pál Szinyei Merse and Károly Ferenczy. In 1911, he travelled to Belgium, where the depictions of dock workers by painter-sculptor Constantin Meunier made a lasting impression. Inspired by this, Egry produced a series of works focusing on the suburban working class, using a distinct golden-brown colour palette.
During the First World War, a period of convalescence in Badacsonytomaj introduced him to the mesmerising beauty of Lake Balaton. Deeply moved by its ever-changing atmosphere, he relocated there permanently in 1918, and started capturing the forever changing atmosphere of the landscape with his own special technique which was based on the mixing of oil paint and pastel.
He remained in close contact with the artist group of the Gresham coffee house and took part in the art life in Budapest by participating in several exhibitions. From the 1920s onward, he focused intensely on exploring light as a creative force, refining his oil-pastel technique to portray luminous, almost immaterial surfaces.
Throughout his career, the interplay of light and atmosphere remained a central theme. His art offered countless variations on the natural beauty of Lake Balaton, consistently deconstructing and reassembling its essence. Egry’s nature-focused vision introduced a fresh and singular voice into the European art scene.
Csaba Vilmos Perlrott – Student of Matisse
“A significant portion of our fine arts exhibition consists of works by Csaba Vilmos Perlrott. In painting, I’ve always been drawn to the bold colours and expressive power of the Fauves.” — András Szabó
Csaba Vilmos Perlrott was a young artist of the Nagybánya School when he arrived in Paris in 1906. There, he became one of the first students at the painting academy founded by Henri Matisse. He quickly embraced and mastered the new artistic style, as seen in several of his Paris-inspired works.
From the outset, Perlrott seamlessly integrated into the vibrant Parisian art world, and his later works remained in step with the leading international art movements. His oeuvre includes landscapes, still lifes, and nudes in a Cubist style. His artistic journey also took him to Munich, Madrid, Berlin, and Dresden. Back in Hungary, he co-founded the Kecskemét Artists’ Colony in 1909 and later became a member of the Society of Szentendre Painters.
