Szenes was born into a wealthy intellectual family in Budapest where he had his first art education; after the revolution in 1919 he travelled far and wide, ending up in Berlin in 1924' By 1928 he had arrived in Paris where he managed to make a living as a caricaturist and where he met the Portuguese artist Maria Vieira da Silva whom he married; they worked together painting in Paris, Lisbon and Brazil until Szenes dies in 1985. There is a Viera da Silva-Arpad Szenes Foundation Museum in Lisbon