The Embassy of Hungary is deeply saddened by the news of the death of Hungarian American Portraitist and Sculptor Gabriella Koszorus-Varsa. She has created the life-sized sculpture of Hungarian Governor Lajos Kossuth, which is displayed at the foyer of the Embassy of Hungary. She also created a 65-by-52-inch oil painting "Fidelissimus ad Mortem" (Faithful Unto Death), depicting the cavalry charge of Colonel Michael Kováts de Fabricy, architect of America's light cavalry, who died in the 1779 Battle of Charleston, and of whom an equestrian bronze statue stands in the garden of the Embassy.

 

Ambassador Somogyi and the whole Embassy staff send their condolences to her family, including Frank Koszorus, Co-President of the Hungarian American Federation.

 

 

Attila Micheler honoring Mrs. Koszorus-Varsa  Fidelissimus ad Mortem (Faithful Unto Death)

 

The Washington Post published the following article in the Obituaries section on Saturday, March 22:

 

"Portraitist and Sculptor Gabriella Koszorus-Varsa, 91
Saturday, March 22, 2008; B07
 

Gabriella F. Koszorus-Varsa created portraits and sculptures that have appeared in the National Air and Space Museum and the Hungarian Embassy

 

Gabriella F. Koszorus-Varsa, 91, an artist and sculptor whose portraits of historical people and events appear in embassies, parks and private homes around the world, died of cancer March 17 at her home in Washington. Mrs. Koszorus-Varsa, a Hungarian immigrant, specialized in figure compositions and portraits. She painted a portrait of Juanita Ramsey, wife of DeWitt Clinton Ramsey, a World War II-era admiral and naval aviator, for the Ramsey Room at the National Air and Space Museum. A 68-by-58-inch "Composition in Memoriam of the Late Astronauts: Virgil Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee" is on exhibit at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center. She also created the 65-by-52-inch oil painting "Fidelissimus ad Mortem" (Faithful Unto Death), depicting the cavalry charge of Colonel Michael Kováts de Fabricy, architect of America's light cavalry, who died in the 1779 Battle of Charleston. A bas-relief of Robert H. Goddard, the father of American rocketry, with his wife was commissioned by the National Air and Space Museum.

 

Mrs. Koszorus-Varsa's life-sized sculpture of Lajos Kossuth, a 19th-century Hungarian political reformer, is at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington and a larger-than-life bust, commissioned by the City of Buffalo Arts Commission, is in a park in that city. She also displayed her work in Munich as well as in Santa Cruz, Calif., New York and Philadelphia.

 

Born in Tata, Hungary, she received the equivalent of a master's degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. During World War II, her husband, Col. Ferenc Koszorus, commanding the Hungarian 1st Armored Division, intervened to prevent the deportation of Jews from Budapest. He was posthumously promoted to general, and Mrs. Koszorus-Varsa created a bas-relief of him, which is displayed near the Dohany Street synagogue in Budapest. She also edited a collection of her husband's letters and papers.

After World War II, she worked as an art instructor and muralist at the American University in Heidelberg, Germany. She and her family immigrated to the United States in 1951 and settled in Washington. Her first husband died in 1974. Mrs. Koszorus-Varsa also created three First Day Cover designs for the Fleetwood Cover Service, a stamp company, in pen and ink. Her second husband, Istvan Varsa, died in 2001. Survivors include a son from her first marriage, Frank Koszorus of Washington; and three grandchildren.

 

Patricia Sullivan"