Csontváry Museum

The Csontváry Museum houses the largest collection of works by Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka, the Hungarian visionary painter who is now recognized as one of the most original artists of the early 20th century. The museum occupies a Baroque townhouse near the Cathedral Quarter and displays some of his most ambitious large-format canvases, including the enormous "Baalbek" (a near-hallucinatory rendering of the Roman ruins in Lebanon) and "Solitary Cedar" — works of unusual scale and emotional intensity.

The collection shows the full range of Csontváry's obsessions: the Middle East, ancient ruins, landscapes charged with religious feeling, and portraits with an uneasy directness. The paintings are displayed in rooms that allow their full scale to be seen, and the quality of light in some of the upstairs galleries is excellent. It is one of those small museums where the concentrated focus on a single artist's vision makes the visit unusually coherent. Allow an hour to see it properly.

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A story
Csontváry Kosztka Tivadar was a Hungarian pharmacist who did not start painting until he was 37, after what he described as a divine vision. He spent much of the next two decades traveling to Lebanon, North Africa, and Greece and producing enormous canvases of extraordinary psychological intensity. He died in 1919, nearly unknown, with his work due to be sold for canvas material. A local collector bought the entire estate on the spot, preserving it. When his paintings were finally exhibited internationally, they were recognized as masterworks. He has been described as a European Van Gogh who remained hidden for decades after his death.

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