Zsuzsi Roboz Art

Zsuzsi Roboz was born in 1929 in Budapest to a prosperous family. Her mother was a society hostess and her father the manager of a theatre. Budapest mostly escaped the war until the Russian army approached and so Germany took control of Hungary. Roboz’s father having been killed by the Russians, she escaped with her mother across the frozen Danube under gunfire. Having lived in France, she went to secretarial school in London; meeting the Italian painter Pietro Annigoni at one of his exhibitions in London. Roboz moved to Italy and learned painting from him. Her second husband, a property developer, was a patron of Chichester Festival theatre, which gave her access to British theatrical stars, many of whom she painted. After her husband’s death, she lived in Mayfair and painted in her studio in Pimlico. Although she produced many portraits, some of which are to be found in the National Portrait Gallery, Roboz never regarded herself as primarily a portrait painter.