The Brush of Uncle Gyárfás

His statue stands in front of the building that used to house bazaars in Sfântu Gheorghe, the upstairs of which is home to the picture gallery named after him. Children run around him, caressing him, like a kindly grandfather with a paintbrush in his hand, looking with quiet serenity to later generations.

A great native of the town, Jenő Gyárfás was a renowned academic and historical painter of the second half of the 19th century, whose talent and education could have placed him among the greatest. His main work, his finest work, is the final version of The Ordeal of the Bier of 1883, the final scene of János Arany's ballad of the same title. He started painting it in Pest, then finished it in Transylvania, but in gratitude for state scholarships, he donated it to the Hungarian National Museum, from where it was transferred to the Hungarian National Gallery.

His genre paintings were a success in Munich, Budapest, and Vienna, but the classic problems of the artists' livelihood forced him to return to Covasna County. He became a painter and graphic artist who was much in demand throughout Transylvania, and today we revere him as an artist returning home to serve his people. His works are preserved in the Gyárfás Jenő Art Gallery of the Székely National Museum in Sfântu Gheorghe and the Hungarian National Gallery, and his memory is preserved for posterity. Built on the banks of the Dobrin stream, the studio apartment is intended by the city council to serve a community cultural purpose.