Tableaux

Szőnyi's early panel paintings are dynamic, expressive works, with nudes set in landscapes, using oil techniques. At this time he was still trying to reconcile avant-garde distortion with classical composition. Very little of his early work survives, but the museum has some, such as "Brickworks Valley" and "Unique Portrait of Lucy".

Among the first scholarship holders of the Hungarian Academy of Rome, founded in 1928, he spent a few months in the Eternal City. After his return home, a change of style can be observed in his work. This period is characterised by a harder, drier style of painting, a more graphic structure, but at the same time his palette becomes lighter. He used a new technique, tempera, and became increasingly interested in the effect of light on colour. His paintings from his transitional period include The Family (Mother with Children), The Petrified Dog and Zebegényi Street.

In 1934, he painted his "Evening", an important piece in the permanent exhibition of the Hungarian National Gallery. This painting can be seen as the beginning of a new era. He experimented with a new emulsion for tempera painting, the recipe for which he published in the book 'The School of Fine Art' in 1941. The tempera paintings "Garden Bench" and "The Village in Autumn" are the finest works from Szőnyi's mature period in the museum.