Louis Szanto

Hungarian-born Louis Szanto Americanized his first name from Lajos when entering the United States. He was a painter and etcher of figure studies, landscape and marine views who studied art both in Wien (Vienna) and Budapest before the outbreak of World War I. He then served with the Austrian Army from 1914-18. After the war he went to München and Paris for further studies and worked in London as an illustrator for several years. Louis Szanto developed an international reputation for both his paintings and etchings. He worked and traveled throughout the Baltic States, Italy, France and Holland and exhibited his art in many major centers, including New York and Chicago.

In the early years of the Great Depression, Szanto moved to the United States. After World War II, the artist joined forces together with Andrew Karoly (1893-1978) and came to dominate mural painting in the Cleveland area.

In the catalog of the 1936 Art Competitions, his entry was simply titled Hunter. The only discovered candidate is an etching with the full title Hunter Walking through a Field Holding Shotgun with His Three Dogs (26.7 x 21.6 cm). This work is dated to circa 1945 in some sources, which may not be correct.