Desiderius Orban

Desiderius Orban, OBE (née Orbán Dezső; 1884 –1986) was a renowned Hungarian painter, printmaker and teacher, who, after emigrating to Australia in 1939 when in his mid-50s, also made an illustrious career in that country.

One of The Eight in Budapest, early 20th-century painters who were influential in introducing cubism, expressionism and Fauvism to Hungary, Orbán had been influenced by the paintings of Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne, seen when he lived in Paris.

After building a substantial career, in 1939, with the rise of the Nazis, anti-Semitism and Fascism, Orbán fled Budapest around the time of the German invasion of Poland and beginning of World War II and emigrated to Sydney. He painted and taught for nearly another fifty years, influencing generations of students.

Portrait of Desiderius Orban, 1968. By Judy Cassab