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Hollósy painted the first sketch for "Rákóczi March" in the autumn of 1885 and kept returning to the composition but he never got to a solution which he thought would match his concept. Only few of his sketches survived and demonstrate the artist's efforts, the most interesting of them is a study from the year 1899. The illustration painted for "Fires", a poem by József Kiss, served as a predecessor to the picture both in content and form, where Hollósy portrayed the revolutionary enthusiasm in people pushing forwards desperately. People are pushing forwards as if they were waves while the march is being played and people cannot be held up. Dust is stirred up as people are marching, light becomes scattered - as a result, there are no forms and contours, there are decorative patches, and the scene becomes visionary.
"This is not a historical picture in the traditional sense, although one might call it that, since it condenses the truest conflict of its time. Hollósy wanted to express the greatest ambition of the suppressed Hungarian people. His figures were borrowed from his time. The ineradicable experience of the war of independence is included in this picture, but the revolts of the 1890s are also anticipated, thus Hollósy goes beyond class barriers of his contemporaries". (Lajos Németh)
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