Károly Markó

Károly Markó the Elder (1791–1860) was a Hungarian Romantic landscape painter whose idealized Italian and pastoral landscapes made him one of the most internationally celebrated Hungarian painters of the nineteenth century. From 1832 he settled permanently in Italy, working in Florence and Rome, where his luminous arcadian landscapes attracted patrons across Europe. He founded a dynasty of painters, with sons and grandsons continuing his manner well into the late nineteenth century.

Markó painted with smooth finish, classicizing composition derived from Claude Lorrain and Poussin, and a luminous palette of warm Italian sunlight. His landscapes are populated with small mythological or pastoral figures.

Markó shaped the Hungarian Romantic landscape tradition and exported a distinctive Hungarian-Italian classicism across nineteenth-century Europe.