Zoltán Nagy, the grand master of portraiture

Zoltán Nagy, the grand master of portraiture
(1916–1987)

As a copper engraver, Zoltán Nagy respected tradition; however, he was able to create his own individual style in this extremely restricted genre. He studied art at the College of Arts and Design and was recognised for his talent when he obtained a job as a graphic artist at the Banknote Printing Company in 1940, a year before graduating.
Trying to pass on his remarkable professional knowledge, his predecessor, Endre Horváth surrounded himself with a team of talented young designers and copper engravers. This included Zoltán Nagy, who later replaced Endre Horváth on the scene of Hungarian stamp and banknote design. He was also assigned partial tasks in the production of the forint banknotes introduced in 1947: he engraved the reverse of the 10, 20, 50 and 100 forint banknotes and the portrait of Dózsa on the obverse of the 20 forint banknote; and he also designed and engraved the obverse of the 500 forint banknote depicting Endre Ady published in 1970. Eventually, this was the only one of his banknote designs to be issued. However, he not only engraved Ady’s portrait on a banknote, but also on a stamp issued for the 1977 Ady centenary. The portrait of Ady depicted on the stamp and banknote summarises the finest virtues of his copper engraving and portraiture skills: meticulous and fine details are the fruit of his drawing skills and good characterisation.
He took over the art management of the Banknote Printing Company after the death of his master and continued the tradition established by Endre Horváth in the field of stamp design by issuing series of copperplate printed stamps. The pinnacle of this technique in his lifetime is the series of Folk costumes issued in 1953 and 1963, whose denominations represent the last shoots of folk romanticism laid down by Endre Horváth on the pengő banknotes.
His work was commemorated by the Hungarian Post Office with a stamp issued on stamp day and designed by Károly Vagyóczky in 1993.