page_title: Albert Nemethy
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Albert Nemethy / Early life
context_page_description: Albert Szatmar Nemethy was a Hungarian-born American artist, noted for being one of the Hudson Valley's most legendary art figures. Art historian and author, Roderic H. Blackburn, claims that Nemethy may have "produced more paintings spanning a wider range of subjects than any other artist in the country." It is estimated that during his life he produced as many as 5,000 paintings.
  Nemethy is most admired for his highly detailed steamboat paintings along with early American folk art paintings. He also painted vast landscapes in the style of Albert Bierstadt, along with still lifes, numerous portraits, houses and castles, and historical images.
context_section_description: Nemethy was born to a Jewish family in a rural area outside of Budapest, Hungary, in 1920. His father was an insurance salesman and his mother a homemaker. Although she was a talented fine artist, she never took it up professionally. Others in his family were musicians, with one widely known throughout Hungary.
  Nemethy's earliest memories of becoming interested in art were when he was the age of four. He did a drawing of his dog that so impressed his parents, they showed it to Pugan, a noted artist in Budapest. Pugan at first couldn't believe it was done by a four-year-old, and took young Nemethy under his wing to teach him the fundamentals of drawing and painting. Nemethy did his first serious painting in a style of his own when he was 15, and soon after enrolled in the Hungarian National Academy in Budapest to study art. He had been blind in his left eye since an early age.
  From that time on, he said "all I was interested in was art," although his parents were against him wanting to become an artist. They felt the life of an artist would be difficult, making it hard to earn a steady income. "I had a hard time with my parents over this," he recalls.
  His plans changed suddenly when in 1940, the Nazis invaded Hungary and occupied the country, making it a member of the Axis powers. Nemethy went into hiding because he and his fiance were Jewish. They couldn't walk the streets, and were always afraid they would be caught.
  In 1944 Hungary was next invaded by the Soviet army to fight the Germans. Nemethy's family lived in the middle of the war zone between the two armies. He recalls, "One side of Budapest was occupied by the Germans and the other side by the Russians, and they were fighting and between that was our place," under heavy bombardment.[3] He nearly lost his life when a bomb hit the building he was in which collapsed around him, but left him untouched. "That was a miracle," he said.
  Another close call came when the Hungarian Nazis took him and the other students into the school courtyard. He sensed the danger immediately, telling a friend "something is not kosher." He then realized that everyone was to be executed. "It's a miracle how I got out," he says. He and his friend first hid on the floor covered with hay.[3] They then managed to sneak themselves outside the courtyard which was surrounded by soldiers.
  When the Soviets finally defeated the Germans in March, 1945, Nemethy suffered through similar close calls on his life. Because he was not a member of the trade union, he was arrested by the Russians but eventually escaped. He was back on the streets trying to create and sell art, now having joined the official artist union in order to display his work. However, his artwork was rejected by the Communists as unacceptable and he was again forced into hiding. He considered leaving the country: "I came to the decision to do something because I could not handle this situation any more. It was not safe on the street." He began planning his "escape" to the West, to either England or America.
caption: Nazis occupy Budapest, 1944
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