Mária Hollósyová

Mária Hollósyová (1 February 1858 – 15 April 1945) was a Slovak civil servant, embroiderer and draftswoman, whose artistic works became known in Europe at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. She was the main designer and embroiderer of the Izabella association. She built a system of education in the embroidery school and, by improving techniques, brought embroidery to a high professional level. In 1891 she was awarded a silver medal in an exhibition in Komárno, in 1892 a gold medal in Trnava, in 1896 a silver medal in Budapest and in 1900 a silver medal in Paris. Her father was Ľudovít Hollósy and her mother was Mária Menyigádová. She studied at the School of Applied Arts in Budapest. In her youth, she experienced an unhappy love affair and broke up with her family and became independent. She never married. Subsequently, Hollósyová exhibited the dolls at an exhibition in Pest, where they were a success. In 1918, the Izabella association ceased to exist and its workshops came under the management of the Detva cooperative. Hollósyová therefore no longer worked on aristocratic and sacred commissions and replaced them with textiles of a more profane nature. She died of unknown circumstances in April 1945 in Cífer.

Legacy In 2000–2001, an exhibition was held at the Bratislava Castle, in connection with which a catalogue of Hollósyová's works was published. In 2001, the municipal council awarded her honorary citizenship of the municipality of Cífer in memoriam.