(1883, Budapest – 1976, Budapest)

Béla Czóbel began his art studies at the Free School of Fine Arts in Nagybánya. Between 1902 and 1903 he studied at the Munich Academy, while in 1903 he enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris. In 1906, he displayed his works with his new friends, Fauve painters, at a collective exhibition.
As a citizen of a hostile country, he had to flee from Paris to Berg in the Netherlands when World War One broke out in 1914; all the works he left in his studio perished.
Between 1919 and 1925 he was a member of the artists’ group Die Brücke in Berlin.
He returned to Paris in 1925 and continued living there until 1939. When World War Two forced him into exile his studio was looted again.
It was in 1936 when Czóbel first came to Szentendre as a guest. He met painter Mária Modok (1896 – 1971), whom he later married.
From 1945 Szentendre became the couple’s permanent summer residence; they spent winters in Paris.
His museum on Church Hill in Szentendre opened a few months before his death.