József Borsos

Jozsef Borsos (December 21, 1821 – August 19, 1883) was a Hungarian portrait painter and photographer. He was also renowned for his numerous “genre” paintings and is most often recognized as an artist of the Biedermeier.

He finished his studies in Vienna, where he garnered much attention. His portraits of distinguished contemporaries and his elaborate genre pictures were highly successful, e.g. Portrait of Kristóf Hegedűs (1844) “Wine, Woman, Love” (1847), and “Girls after the Ball” (1850). His typically biedermeier colours, realistic, strong and delicate, and his harmonic compositions made him popular with the public patronizing art in Pest. After losing his money on the Stock Exchange, he moved from Vienna to Pest in 1861. Unable to compete with photography, he opened a photographic studio and died as the owner of the restaurant “Szép Juhászné”. His works: “Alms”, “Sunset”, “The Letter”, “Grapes or a Kiss”, “National Guard”, “Bathing Women”, “The Portrait of Zitterbach, an Architect”, “The Portrait of Ferenc Pulszky”, and “Pigeon Post”.