István Csók was a Hungarian Impressionist painter. Csok lived and exhibited in Paris for a portion of his life. He became most famous in Hungary for his nudes, portraits, and landscapes of the Lake Balaton. Csok had many international exhibitions in such cities as Rome, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and London. He won the Kossuth Prize

Kossuth Prize

The Kossuth Prize is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionary Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1948 by the Hungarian National Assembly, to acknowledge outstanding personal and group achievements in the fields of...

 twice.

Though rarely seen in the West nowadays, an example of Csók's work can be glimpsed behind the opening credits of the 1971 film Countess Dracula

Countess Dracula

Countess Dracula is a 1971 Hammer horror film based on the legends surrounding the "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Báthory. It is in many ways atypical of Hammer's canon, attempting to broaden Hammer's output from Dracula and Frankenstein sequels....

. This is an 1896 painting showing serial murderess Countess Elizabeth Bathory enjoying the torture of some young women: in an inner courtyard of one of her castles, naked girls are being drenched with water and allowed to freeze to death in the snow. The original painting was destroyed in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

External links

• Works by István Csók
• ArtNet Biography