The Light of Szentendre: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Parallels

This lecture examines the relationship between French Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, German Expressionism, and the artistic culture of Szentendre, one of the most important centers of Hungarian modernism. The lecture was delivered by Lea-Katharina Steller, née Lea Virághalmy. The research is based on personal experiences gained at the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad, as well as later academic work in Canada, and it explores how key concerns of modernism (light, perception, color, structure, and subjective vision) were reinterpreted within a Central European context. Particular attention is given to the work of Béla Czóbel, Jenő Barcsay, Lajos Vajda, and Dezső Korniss, whose art transformed international modernist ideas through local historical and cultural traditions. The lecture argues that Szentendre was not a peripheral recipient of Western European influences but an autonomous site of artistic innovation. It compares the symbolic and memory-based visual language of Szentendre with the psychologically charged aesthetics of German Expressionism, especially Die Brücke. By examining these parallels and differences, the study highlights the diverse regional forms that European modernism could assume. Ultimately, it proposes that the strength of modernism lies in its capacity to absorb local histories and cultural identities while remaining part of a broader international visual discourse.