Fine artist, painter.
His native town is Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureş). After his father’s death, his mother strives to provide his son, who had graduated from high-school, with a profession. In 1885 he arrives to Eperjes, to Divald Károly, in order to learn and become a professional photographer. Recommended by his chief, he arrives to Pesta, to study painting at the painting schools of Bihari Sándor and Karlovszki Bertalan. He returns to Târgu Mureş in order to carry out military service.
He arrives to Paris, to the Julian Academy, due to a grant offered by the Hungarian state. He works during his school time, but, in spite of that, in order to survive, he must move to München. Because of the work he executes at nights he gets sick, but he finally succeeds in spending one more year in Paris (1896). Then München, and after that Budapest, he attends the private school of Benczúr Gyula undergoing some serious material sacrifice. He gets married to Emilia, the daughter of senior Divald Károly, and till the end of his life he is in good familial relationships with his father-in-law and brother-in-law, with young Divald Károly (he executed their portraits for many times). In 1901 he moves to Timişoara, where he buys himself a house; this is also the place where his children are born.
He uses watercolours in his paintings, he draws in China ink and creates engravings, pastels, mural paintings and oil paintings. After his death, there is a large number of drawings (sketches) which remain in the family’s property. He loves the town and enjoys exploring the old places, which remind him of the past, he enters the archaic yards in the centre of the town, the narrow streets, from where he returns home with sketches and drawings executed in char-coal. His studio can be found in the Bastion of the Fortress, then in the centre of the town. He always shows interest in welcoming guests and till the end of his life he accepts restoration works.
His art goes further than the actual academic limits but – although his sunny and optimistic landscapes, created in the open, and his still lives with flowers suggest the impressionistic influence here and there – he is not subordinated to any artistic style. In 1904 he arrives to Italy for the first time, together with his sick wife. His scale of colours becomes more vivid, his painting suggests more freedom. The next years he often returns to Italy, he creates copies of Van Dyck and Raffael.
At the beginning he has few orders to accomplish, but due to his academic portraits, which he executes very fast -yet they all suggest a precise drawing -he soon develops a circle of acquaintances. In 1902, the portrait of His Majesty, Franz Joseph I. (dressed up in the gala outfit representing the order of St. Stephen) acknowledges him in the proper way. Starting with 1904, the greatest part of the urban Magistrature’s official portraits is ordered from him, for the Town-Hall’s Council Room. He paints the portraits according to photographs and models. He paints the theatre director Krecsányi Ignác, the Mayors Telbisz Károly, Veigl József, Steiner Ferenc, Preyer Nepomuk János, the Law Court President Salacz Béla, the Bishop from Cenad Németh József, the canonical figure dr. Szentkláray Jenő, dr. Patzner István, the reform priest Szabolcska Mihály, the Public Prosecutor Gozsdu Elek, the Counsellor Mühle Vilmos and the portraits of more official characters. He organises solo exhibitions at Timişoara, Vârşeţ, Panciova and Subotica.
In 1904 a large oil painting, a hommage to the soldiers who had fought in ’48, The Soldier’s Dream (Glorious Days), is purchased by the town for the museum, a painting which no longer exists, just like his Self-Portrait. He had travelled a lot towards the area of Matyóföld, Hungary and, by means of the small decorative paintings (A young matyó couple, A matyó dance, Painting with geraniums etc.), he introduces the ones living in the Banat region into the world lived by matyó-s. The paintings he exhibits around 1910 are related to the creation of Bihari Sándor and Nyilasi Sándor. Starting with 1897, he organises his exhibition at the Art Gallery in Budapest. In 1906, then in 1910, according to his initiative, the National Saloon also exhibits at Timişoara, and the painter assumes a very important role in its organisation.
In January 1912 they deliver the building complex of the Charitable Upper Gymnasium in Timişoara. In its church, Ferenczy József keeps painting sequences related to the life of St. Joseph from Calasant (the founder of the charity order), by approaching the “al secco” technique. He lectures the elite society on the initiation in art and separately, within the frames of the evening courses, he trains the workers and students at the vocational schools. Later, he publishes his lectures in the form of some notebooks (1914).
He is shaken by the first World War and foresees a sombre future to the destroying human spirit. Between 1914 and 1916 he moves to München, and at the end of the war he doesn’t want to paint any longer. He is preoccupied by biblical topics and executes large and sombre oil paintings: Juda, Christ on the Cross, Lazarus’s Ressurection, Maria with the Infant. He discovers the value of the landscapes in Haţeg and Caransebeş, then the furnaces in Reşiţa, the brightness of furnaces. In June 1920, when the region of Banat got subordinated to the Romanian administration, he is the one who carries out the inventory of the town’s official pinacotheca, which had been already fragmented, he writes the official report and sends it to the museum.
In 1923, he is very sick and, together with his younger brother, painter Ferenczy Károly, he visits Italy for the last time. After he returns home, there is only his tough ambition which keeps him alive. In December 1925 a large number of artist colleagues say good bye to him forever. In January 1926 his friends and the „Arany János” Society from Timişoara organise a memorial exhibition from the painter’s artistic collection.
There is a wide range of works of art which had been purchased by the private collectors from Timişoara, Hungary or Germany; there are 30 paintings in the pinacotheca of the Art Museum Timişoara.
