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Artist or Maker: Munkacsky, Mihaly (1844-1909)

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Provenance: with Galerie Sedelmeyer, Paris.
Mrs Esther Lazard, Paris, and thence by descent to the present owner.

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Notes: Widely regarded as one of the finest Hungarian painters of his age, Mihály Munkáscy enjoyed enormous commercial success in his time and today he is not only appreciated for his decorative qualities, but also for his extraordinary technical skill in bringing to life his elegant and refined subject matter. The duality found in his work, ranging from the sentimental genre to the Barbizonian landscape, leaves open to discussion on which basis his oeuvre should be judged, and also what should be regarded as its focal point. This wide variety in his oeuvre is a clear testament to his painterly technique and artistic insight and makes Munkácsy a key figure in European art history of his time.

Munkáscy was born as Mihály Lieb in the village of Munkásc in 1844. At the age of 22, he changed his last name from Lieb into Munkáscy, honouring his town of birth. He was orphaned at the age of seven and raised by Istvan Reòk, who fully encouraged his interests in drawing and painting and also provided him with a traditional trade by having him educated as a carpenter. In the late 1850s he met fellow artist Szamossy, by all sense and definition a local artist, but of great assistance in the development of Munkáscy's self-image. Between 1861 and 62 he travelled the country as Szamossy's pupil and assistant, painting mostly portraits. Szamossy is most likely to have introduced the artist to Munkáscy's former mentor Carl Rahl (1812-1865), a professor at the Viennese Academy. Munkáscy had had no official training and Rahl's tutelage formalised his career as an artist. Unfortunately, he was not to stay long as he failed to pay his tuition fees and was sent away.

In 1866 Munkáscy first moved to Munich, where many of his fellow Hungarian artists had settled and then to Düsseldorf to continue his training at the Academy under the German genre painter Ludwig Knaus. He greatly admired Knaus, who strengthened his technical skills and taught him to use a bitumen base on his canvases and panels. On this dark base he built his compositions with lighter pigments, building towards brighter accents of colour, and it is this remarkable technique which infuses Munkáscy's work with the characteristic and unique warmth to create an unrivalled intimate atmosphere.

During his time at Knaus' studio he painted The Last Day of a Condemned Man. Although the artist was only 26, this painting made him famous overnight, and he received the gold medal at the 1870 Paris Salon. One year later Munkáscy established himself in Paris where his art was to be strongly influenced by the realism of Gustave Courbet and the Barbizon School with heavily impastoed brushwork, he created confronting images of the lower classes.

During his time in Paris he also became acquainted with the patron aristocrat Baron de Marches whose estate at Colpach in Luxembourg provided a calm and inspirational environment for Munkáscy to paint in. However commercial success could not prevent the artist from spiraling into depression a fact reflected in his work of that time. However, when but when in 1874, after the Baron's death, the artist married his widow the Baroness des Marches and they moved to Paris, a newfound happiness had a profound influence on the artist's painting, as evidenced by the present work. The tonality changed from being dark and sombre to a bright and feather-light palette. In his work the signs of depression and the critical eye with which he viewed society had made place for an idealised environment of elegance and richness. He had exchanged the poverty of his background in Hungary for the refined salons of Paris. He lived in an impressive townhouse on the well-to-do Avenue de Villier. Its interior was as rich and as sophisticated as the ones depicted in his widely acclaimed paintings. His was one of the most elegant salons in Paris, where he held sparkling soirées attended by celebrities from the worlds of art, literature and music.

The verso of the present lot bears the seal of French dealer Galerie Sedelmeyer (fig. 1). In 1878 Munkáscy signed a contract with the gallery to represent his work for 10 years, during which time the artist executed some of his most decorative and finely executed work. These include the present lot, which breathes an intimate atmosphere, representing chic Parisiennes and their children at leisure (fig. 2), hinting at bourgeois ideals such as domesticity, prosperity and refinement. These highly idealised scenes were internationally appreciated and propelled Munkáscy to the status of one of the most sought-after artists in Paris. His paintings are more emotionally charged than those of his French contemporaries, and had a genre-like quality which the artist introduced to numerous variations on the theme of motherhood. In the present lot his rendition of a mother and her daughter in a Paris park exudes ease and comfort; exquisitely dressed, the figure on the bench shows little outward signs of motherhood, her reverie distracting her from her charge, who is busily picking flowers in the background. The mood is accentuated by the artist's lightness of touch, and the placement of flowers, which seem to almost float across the composition.