Béni Ferenczy (18 June 1890 – 2 June 1967) was a Hungarian

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

medalist A medalist (or medallist) is an artist who designs medals, plaquettes, badges, metal medallions, coins and similar small works in relief in metal. Historically, medalists were typically also involved in producing their designs, and were usually e ...

and

graphic artist A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming l ...

Early life and education

Béni Ferenczy was born in 1890 in

Szentendre Szentendre, also known as Saint Andrew is a riverside town in Pest County, Hungary, between the capital city Budapest and Pilis Mountains, Pilis-Visegrád Mountains. The town is known for its museums (most notably the :hu: Szentendrei Szabadtéri ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, the second son of

Károly Ferenczy Károly Ferenczy (February 8, 1862 – March 18, 1917) was a Hungarian painter and leading member of the Nagybánya artists' colony.Ilona Sármány-Parsons"Károly Ferenczy" Oxford Art Online He was among several artists who went to Munich for ...

and

Olga Fialka Olga Fialka (1848-1930) was an Austro-Hungarian artist and matriarch of the Ferenczy family of artists. Biography Olga Fialka was born on 19 April 1848 in Theresienstadt. She studied painting under Jan Matejko in Kraków. She went on to study un ...

, both painters. His sister Noémi was his fraternal twin. All three of the children became artists: Valér was a painter, Béni a sculptor and Noémi a weaver.''Ferenczy Károly (1862-1917) gyűjteményes kiállítása'' (The Retrospective Exhibition of Károly Ferenczy), eds. Judit Boros and Edit Plesznivy, Budapest: Hungarian National Gallery, 2011 As a young man, Ferenczy went to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to study art, as did many artists from Hungary since the late nineteenth century. In the latter city, he studied with both

Antoine Bourdelle Antoine Bourdelle (; 30 October 1861 – 1 October 1929), born Émile Antoine Bordelles, was an influential and prolific French sculptor and teacher. He was a student of Auguste Rodin, a teacher of Giacometti and Henri Matisse, and an important ...

and Archipenko.

Career

Later in his career, Ferenczy also worked in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, for a time. After his experiences with

cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

first and with

expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

later, his art evolved in

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

s with emphasized forms. While a highly talented sculptor he was one of the most accomplished graphic artists in Hungary of the period. He also illustrated many books.

Marriage and family

He married Erzsi (Elizabeth) (c.1904-2000) in 1932. She was his close companion, an inspiration for his work and a frequent model of his. Ferenczy died in 1967 in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Erzsi Ferenczy

After his death, Erzsi Ferenczy worked to preserve her husband's work and memory. She died in 2000 at the age of 96.

Legacy and honours

*1972, Erzsi Ferenczy founded the Ferenczy Museum in Szentendre, with holdings that included artwork by each member of the family. *In 1993, Erzsi established the Ferenczy Family Foundation.

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20061023024011/http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no179/7.html 1890 births 1967 deaths People from Szentendre Hungarian graphic artists Hungarian medallists Burials at Kerepesi Cemetery Hungarian twins Academic staff of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts 20th-century Hungarian sculptors {{Hungary-sculptor-stub