Zemplényi was a disciple of Mihály Munkácsy, where he began en plein air painting.

[1] He was a student of Károly Lotz and Bertalan Székely in Budapest, then Gabriel von Hackl and Ludwig Löfftz in Munich.

[2] A graduate of the Munich Academy,[3] in 1891, he was granted a government scholarship in Italy and also visited Paris.

[4] On his return to Hungary, Zemplényi was a member of the free school of Szolnok for many years, and also in Nagybánya.

"[6] The people he painted in his pictures tended to be those in suffering or hardship such as peasants, the poor, and beggars.