The earliest relic of Hungarian painting is the 12th century fresco of the undercroft of the church in Feldebrõ. The painting of Byzantine style is in the interior of the Romanesque building. The Esztergom royal castle and its chapel house relics of 13th-14th century Gothic painting. Similarly, the Esztergom palace accommodates the remnants of the Renaissance frescos that date back to the period of King Matthias. These frescos depict the allegoric figures of virtue.

The main altar erected in 1506 of the Maria church in Selmecbánya is a significant work of art of the Gothic painting. The real name of the master of the initials M.S. erecting the altar remains unknown.

Foreigners refined Baroque painting that developed as the accompaniment of architecture in Hungary. Its most important representatives are the Austrian Franz Anton Maulbertsch, who painted a series of churches in Transdanubia, Johann Lucas Kracker who painted the fresco of the library of the Eger Lyceum and István Dorfmeister of Sopron, the painter of the Death of Zrínyi on the wall of the church of Szigetvár. The period was also characterised by the flourishing of portrait painting , it was during this period that Ádám Mányoki painted the portrait of Ferenc Rákóczi II.

The most highly acclaimed painter of the first half of the 19th century was Miklós Barabás, who painted the portraits of the heroes of the War of Independence. His genre painting entitled Rumanian Family Setting Out to Market is also well known. Károly Markó (Visegrád), the landscape painter and the portrait painter József Borsos were also his contemporaries.

The best known Hungarian painters became famous after the War of Independence. Károly Lotz was a romantic decorator of interiors of buildings, a good example for this is the fresco embellishing the ceiling of the Opera. Viktor Madarász won the grand prize of the Paris Salon with his ?national" painting entitled The Mourning of László Hunyadi. Bertalan Székely also depicted historic subjects (The Women of Eger). The wall paintings of Mór Than decorate the walls of the Vigadó Redout and of the National Museum. One of the outstanding achievements of historic painting is the monumental work of Gyula Benczúr entitled The Conquest of Buda Castle.

Mihály Munkácsy representing the so-called folk realism was active during the last third of the century. His works, including the Yawning Apprentice, The Linen Shredders and the Woman Carrying Twigs, as well as the Christ Trilogy are significant milestones in Hungarian fine arts. It was also during this period that the masterpieces of plain-air, Picnic in May and Woman in Lilac Gown were painted by Pál Szinyei Merse.

Of the art nouveau, post-impressionist painters of the 20th century Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka was the first one (Pilgrimage to the Cedars in Lebanon). It is during this period that the Nagybánya artist colony established by Simon Hollósy and the Hungarian father of plain-air painting, Károly Ferenczy lay the foundation of their renown. The painters of the Great Plains, János Tornyai and Gyula Rudnay represented realism. Lajos Gulácsy created a peculiar dream world but it was owing to József Rippl-Rónai, the painter genius of international acclaim, that Hungary joined the European stream of post-impressionism.

Upon the foundation of the artist colony in Gödöllõ, a new generation of Nagybánya painters entered the scene, as well: Béla Czóbel, Károly Kernstok introduced avant-garde within the artist group named Nyolcak (The Eight) . The next phase in the development of the avant-garde was the activism of Lajos Kassák and Béla Uitz.

The "official" style of the 1920s was the regular, monumental neo-classicism of the Roman school, the most outstanding representative of which was Vilmos Aba-Novák. The late impressionism of Aurél Bernáth and István Szõnyi, as well as the Balaton paintings of József Egry together with the artists of the Gresham circle and the paintings of Gyula Derkovits showing workers in a solid composition parted with this style.

A new artists' colony, the Szentendre colony opened in 1928: its most famous artists were Béla Czóbel and the constructivist Jenõ Barcsay.

The period after World War Two put the masters of graphic art , Ádám Würtz, János Kass, Arnold Gross and Károly Reich into the forefront. Viktor Vasarely, the developer of the genre of op-art was born in Pécs but became world famous in Paris. He established a museum in his hometown Pécs.

The best-known contemporary painters include, among others, Tibor Csernus, István Mácsai, the expressionist avant-garde Károly Klimó, Lili Ország, István Nádler, Ilona Keserû, Pál Deim, Péter Földi and Endre Szász.