The sad news has reached us that Dr. Teréz Gerszi (1927 – 2023), former Keeper of Prints and Drawings of the Museum of Fine Arts (Szépművészeti Múzeum) in Budapest, passed away on 23 February.

Gerszi’s scholarship in the field of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Netherlandish and German art, with a focus on the influence of landscapes by Pieter Bruegel, and on Rudolfine art around 1600 inspired and continues to inspire genrations of art historians. Among the many books she published, her monograph on Paulus van Vianen and two complete catalogues raisonnés on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Netherlandish drawings in the Budapest collection are point of reference for researchers of Dutch and Flemish drawings. Her articles on Jan Speckaert, Lodewijk Toeput, Jacques de Gheyn, Hendrik Goltzius, Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel, among others, are important contributions to the scholarship on Netherlandish art.

Gerszi was elected a member of the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium, and honored with a Knighthood of the Order of Oranje-Nassau in 2016. She has also won the Széchenyi Prize – the Hungarian State’s highest possible award for scientific achievement. Inspired by her, generations of art historians learnt the art of seeing and the passionate dedication to scholarly research.