Fényes was the son of a rabbi, Simon Fischmann, and was expected to become a lawyer. It was whilst attending law school in Budapest that he decided to change the course of his destiny and enrolled at the Budapest Institute of Design as a student of Bertalan Székely between 1884-87. Subsequent studies in Weimar with Max Thedy and in Paris at the Académie Julian followed. Under the tutelage of his mentors Fényes adopted a naturalist style and quickly emerged as one of the most significant painters of the Nagybánya school.

Having returned to Hungary in 1894, Fenyes helped form the Szolnok artists colony in 1898. It was from this moment onwards that he turned to a more impressionistic style of painting a...