Born in Som, Iványi-Grünwald began his artistic studies under Bertalan Székely and Károly Lotz at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest (1882–86) and continued them at Munich in 1886-87 and at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1887 to 1890.

[1] Characteristic of his early pictures is A Hadúr kardja ("The Warrior's Sword", 1890), a proto-Symbolist treatment of rural genre showing the influence of Jules Bastien-Lepage.

He received a number of important commissions, for instance painting a monumental canvas for the University of Debrecen Library.

At first he was influenced by French naturalism (Ave Maria, 1891; Juhász és parasztasszony — "Shepherd and Peasant Woman", 1892).

[1] At Nagybánya, undoubtedly the most accomplished phase of his career, he focused on plein air and costume scenes (Holdkelte — "Moonrise", 1897; Bércek között — "Between Crags", 1901; Itatás — "Watering", 1902; Háromkirályok — "The Three Magi", 1903; Ruhaszárítás — "Drying Clothes", 1903).

He emphasized, for example, the mood produced by light at various times of the day and night, as in Evening by the Cattle Pen (1896), and used extremely bright colours, not entirely typical of the Nagybánya school as a whole, as with the brilliant greens of A völgyben ("In the Valley", ca.

In 1906 he held an exhibition of his works in the Ernst Museum in Budapest, and this event effectively announced the end of his Nagybánya period, although he remained there a few more years.