János Thorma was a visual artist born in Kiskunhalas in 1870. His father was Béla Thorma, a tax office treasurer from Csopak, and his mother was Gizella Fekete. As a student Thorma first went to Pest, where he began his studies as a student of Bertalan Székely. Later the mayor of Kiskunhalas, István Vári Szabó, awarded a scholarship to the young, talented painter so that he could study abroad. He first went to the Bavarian capital, Munich where he joined the artist Simon Hollósy's circle of painters. Afterward Thorma studied in Paris between 1891 and 1895 at Academy Julian where his first large picture "Sufferers" received an honorable mention at the Paris Salon in 1894.

     On the threshold of the millennium, the two former students of Hollósy, Thorma and Istvan Réti, persuaded Hollósy to move to Nagybánya thus creating a vibrant and important artist colony in Nagybánya. Some scholars have called this the most significant artist colony in Central and Eastern Europe. János Thorma was among the founders of the colony and later one of its teachers.

     After Hollósy's departure in 1902, the artists Károly Ferenczi, István Réti, Béla Grünwald and János Thorma became the head of the painting colony and free school in Nagybánya. Later the artist Aurél Bernáth wrote about Thorma, "When I think of Thorma's appearance, he is still alive in my memories (he was) a handsome, handsome and serious, tanned man, with an upright posture, strong features and white hair. Quiet, his firm, albeit terse, speech gave weight to his movements, and his look also supported his words, as he surveyed the lounge with him from the side a little".

     Throughout his life, Thorma was open to different artistic trends and tried to change and develop his painting as early as the 1900s. At the beginning of the 1910s, he creates thin color surfaces and uses bright, unmixed patches of color. In his painting after 1920, he succeeded in an individual tone, with a uniquely lyrical tone, to create masterpieces by placing human and female figures in nature and landscapes.

     In 1939 the National Salon commemorated him in a two-week exhibition. In 1966 the Hungarian National Gallery held a major commemorative exhibition, "The Art of Nagybánya," commemorating the innovations of Thorma and fellow artists. In 2013 the National Gallery opened a major retrospective of more than 100 works by János Thorma lent from numerous institutions and private collectors throughout Europe.

     The artist is represented in these public institutions:

• Hungarian National Gallery

• The János Thorma Múzeum

• The Art Museum in Nagybánya

• The Janus Pannonius Museum in Pécs

• The Móra Ferenc Museum in Szeged

• The Déri Museum in Debrecen

• The Herman Ottó Museum in Miskolc

• The Katona József Museum in Kecskemét