 In 1867, the painter Antal Ligeti, who was serving as curator of the Hungarian National Museum, noticed Mészöly copying works in the gallery and, impressed by his talent, helped him to enter the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he studied with Robert Russ and Albert Zimmermann.In 1873, the year following his graduation, he opened a studio in Munich.In 1882, he moved to Paris, where he came under the influence of the Barbizon school, and returned to Budapest in 1885.