Károly Markó the Elder (1791-1860) is known to be as one of the most illustrious figures of 19th century Hungarian painting with an entire school of followers. He mostly lived abroad in his lifetime primarily working in Vienna, then in Italy for twenty-five years. His life and activities can be deemed as a fine example as to how one can be thriving to support his native culture by applying Italian sources as well as by using the heritage of his homeland. Almost every renowned Hungarian painter of romantic landscape painting belonged for some time to the circle of Markó's students either in Pisa, or in Rome, or even in Florence.

At the same time, Markó represented one of Europe's artistic and cultural centres by sending his pictures of Italian landscapes to exhibitions held in Pest. This exhibition includes Markó's Hungarian and Italian landscape paintings, his mythological as well as biblical compositions, and a separate section is dedicated to Markó's architectural designs and impressive sketches.

Curators of the exhibition: Orsolya Hessky (Hungarian National Gallery), Gábor Bellák (Hungarian National Gallery), Zoltán Dragon (Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art)