Mansion Roma, the edifice once home of József Rippl-Rónai (1861-1927) is a renowned sight in Kaposvár. The mansion with six bedrooms and yellow walls is located in a romantic park. The modern painter Ripple-Rónai was an acclaimed artist in Paris at the end of the 19th century. He lived in the mansion from 1908 to 1927, until his death.

'At present, the mansion hosts the József Ripple-Rónai Memorial Museum. Beside a number of wonderful paintings, a complete interior with his personal articles, shortly his inheritance is shown. We brought the twenty most valuable paintings and fifteen graphics from the mansion to show them in Szeged. We added six Ripple-Rónai paintings from the collection of the Ferenc Móra Museum' said Dr. János Horváth, the arts historian and curator of the exhibition.

The pictures shown provide a short review of the complete oeuvre, his four artistic eras: the so-called 'black' era, in other words the time he spent in Paris; the first pictures painted in Kaposvár, the so-called 'interior pictures'; the second Kaposvár era, the so-called 'corn' era and at last the era of 'pastel pictures' painted in Budapest.

The first modern painter in Hungarian art led a modest life financially in Paris. He did not blame fate for lack of success. His whole life and work was nothing but a fight. After returning home and several unsuccessful exhibition his first success came with a showing in Budapest in 1906.

He was forty-five when he was first successful financially. He spent his first significant income on buying a vineyard on Roma Hills in Kaposvár. This paradise of artists affected his art greatly in 1908. The Mansion Roma became a modern arts centre. Famous painters and writers arrived as quests to the mansion. The estate produced excellent wine and the animals raised there were often served on tables. The most important fruit produced on the estate was the 'corn' paintings. The exhibition in the Ferenc Móra Museum focuses on these pictures.