As one chronicler of his career remarked, “Gergely displayed an intense curiosity toward people and their environment and a sharp eye for what lies beneath the surface.” 

The “Village Life” collection was created in the 1920’s and 30’s in and around the village of Kortvelyes, Hungary where Anna Lesznai had her  family “castle.”

Using pen and ink, Gergely wandered through the village and countryside, stopping to draw scenes that caught his eye - peasants working in the fields or drinking in the local tavern; women harvesting sweet potatoes;  Jewish  markets and Jewish weddings;  young Gypsy girls bathing in the river;  villagers buying and selling at the marketplace; old women gossiping by a fence. 

Today, these drawings of rural life in villages between the World Wars, depicting the pre-Holocaust assimilation of Jews mingling with non-Jews in quiet harmony, stand as a record of a vanished world.