Tornyai, the son of day labourers, studied at the School of Decorative Art in 1886–1888, then a guest pupil of Bertalan Székely, Károly Lotz and János Greguss in 1888–89.

He started to collect folklore products together with Gyula Rudnay [hu] and Béla Endre and they founded a school in Hódmezővásárhely to save folk pottery.

His major works from this period "Rákóczi in Rodostó", 1904, "The Outlaw's Love", 1907, and "Miklós Nagy Bercsényi", 1908.

In his late Szentendre period, colours became lighter and he was engaged in plein air ("Woman in Green Coat", 1932–34, etc.).

[1] He became interested in the Great Plain around 1904 and from then on he made several pictures of farmsteads with violent brushwork and sweeping style.