“Not only did we try to displace reality; reality was no longer in the object. Reality was in the painting.” Pablo Picasso

After studying art in Nagybánya (today: Baia Mare, Romania) and Munich, Béla Czóbel arrived in Paris, where he continued his training. There, Czóbel found an open, progressive artistic community, and he was also able to sell his paintings. In addition to the members of the Hungarian colony in Montparnasse, he became friends with Picasso and Braque. He became a pillar of both the Parisian and Hungarian art scenes, and Czóbel’s works revitalized Hungarian painting. His progressive spirit is also evident in the fact that in 1908, he and his fellow Hungarian artists planned to organize an exhibition in Budapest where their own works would have been displayed alongside those of Picasso and Matisse, but the exhibition ultimately did not take place. The correspondence between Picasso and Czóbel is preserved at the Musée National Picasso-Paris.