The following portraits and caricatures can be found in the Archive’s fonds titled Képzőművészeti szövetségek iratai, “Documents of the Alliance of Hungarian Artists” (MDK-C-I-2/1179.1–116). Aside from a few exceptions, they were all drawn by Lajos Szentgyörgyvári Gyenes, who was the secretary general (and later, the president) of Magyar Képzőművészek Országos Szövetsége (Hungarian National Alliance of Artists) from 1932 on. We came in possession of the portrait series as part of the artist’s bequest. A prominent organiser in art life at the time, Szentgyörgyvári made drawings of Café Japán’s regulars for more than a decade, starting at the end of the 1920s. The series contains the portraits of about 80 artists and intellectuals.

Our Archive holds the Photographs by Josef Fischer (fond ID: MKCS-C-I-121), who was employed in the Sibiu (in Hungarian: Nagyszeben, in German: Hermannstadt) workshop of his famous brother, the photographer Emil Fischer (1873-1965). The majority of Emil’s photos later ended up in the Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu, Romania. The bequest contains numerous glass negatives of Transylvanian monuments. These are complemented by the meticulously compiled and labeled photo album (Ungarische Schlösser und Trachten), whose pasted photographs were in part based on the negatives. You can find in our database an extended selection from Josef Fischer’s glass negatives, mainly photos of castles, palaces and churches as well as some city views from Transylvania.

The Archive of the Institute contains the estate of the painter Irma Demeczkyné Wolf (fond ID: MKCS-C-I-80). Irma Demeczkyné  Wolf (1874, Budapest-1957, Budapest) was a student at the University of Fine Arts, where his masters were the some of the great Hungarian masters of art of the late 19th early 20th century: Bertalan Székely, Robert Nádler, Károly Lotz and Lajos Deák Ébner. The very varied material of her estate contains original works from her young age and documents related to her (such as letters, small prints, photographs). 

The Nagybánya Artist Colony, established in 1896, has had a major impact on modern Hungarian art in the first half of the 20th century. In the collection of the Archives there are a large number of written and visual documents (such as posters, letters, postcards, photographs, small prints, newspapers) written by masters and students of this outstanding painting school. Below, we have compiled a selection that gives a glimpse into the life of the colony from the foundation until the middle of the century. 

The Archive keeps the manuscript of the art historian János Bende (1882-1960) of the former secretary of the National Salon (fond ID: MDK-C-II-20). His manuscript entitled The History of Fine Arts Associations was written in 1951-1953, and it reviews the history of Hungarian art associations and exhibition places from the beginning of the 19th century to 1950. The manuscript can be searched in full in the database or by chapters. The author's reminders can be read in a separate folder. 

The collection of Archive contains the extracts from some important artistic periodicals of 19-20. century (fond ID: MKCS-C-I-127) The tens of thousands of notes focuses on the art historical content of periodicals and newspapers. The full database of periodicals (title, processed year) contains the editions of 11 periodicals (Archaeologiai Értesítő, Archaeologiai Közlemények, Bauzeitung für Ungarn, Építési Ipar, Hölgyfutár, Pester Lloyd, Pesti Divatlap, Szabad Nép, Századok, Tér és Forma, Tudományos Gyüjtemény), which can be researched by title, and year of publication.