.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Widely regarded as one of the finest Hungarian painters of his age, Mihály Munkáscy enjoyed enormous commercial success. He is appreciated for his decorative qualities and extraordinary technical skill in bringing to life elegant and refined subject matter. He also painted Barbizonian landscape.
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, and 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 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 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 characteristic and unique warmth.
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.
During his time in Paris he also became acquainted with the Baron de Marches whose estate at Colpach in Luxembourg provided a calm and inspiring environment for Munkáscy to paint in. However commercial success could not prevent the artist from spiralling into depression a fact reflected in his work of that time. However in 1874, after the Baron's death, the artist married his widow. They moved to Paris, and a newfound happiness had a profound influence on the artist's painting. 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 exchanged the poverty of his background in Hungary for the refined salons of Paris. He lived in an impressive townhouse on the Avenue de Villier. Its interior was as rich and 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 Two Families is one of Munkácsy’s 'salon pictures', a representative form of bourgeois genre painting incorporating a body of work executed in several different versions between 1878 and 1887. As Munkácsy would build up his palette from dark to light, so he would also delicately build up his composition by layering separate components together to form an overall narrative. Thus, we see the three distinct groups: the family of dogs feeding on the sumptuous carpet, the children with their nurse watching with fascination and intrigue, whilst to the right of the canvas the lady in blue watches the nurse holding the youngest child. These lines of sight between the figures pull our attention around the intimate room, and show off the lavishly furnished interior which serves to display the opulence of Paris.
We are grateful to Dr. Judit Boros for confirming the authenticity of the present lot on the basis of a photograph (correspondence dated October 2015).
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, and 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 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 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 characteristic and unique warmth.
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.
During his time in Paris he also became acquainted with the Baron de Marches whose estate at Colpach in Luxembourg provided a calm and inspiring environment for Munkáscy to paint in. However commercial success could not prevent the artist from spiralling into depression a fact reflected in his work of that time. However in 1874, after the Baron's death, the artist married his widow. They moved to Paris, and a newfound happiness had a profound influence on the artist's painting. 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 exchanged the poverty of his background in Hungary for the refined salons of Paris. He lived in an impressive townhouse on the Avenue de Villier. Its interior was as rich and 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 Two Families is one of Munkácsy’s 'salon pictures', a representative form of bourgeois genre painting incorporating a body of work executed in several different versions between 1878 and 1887. As Munkácsy would build up his palette from dark to light, so he would also delicately build up his composition by layering separate components together to form an overall narrative. Thus, we see the three distinct groups: the family of dogs feeding on the sumptuous carpet, the children with their nurse watching with fascination and intrigue, whilst to the right of the canvas the lady in blue watches the nurse holding the youngest child. These lines of sight between the figures pull our attention around the intimate room, and show off the lavishly furnished interior which serves to display the opulence of Paris.
We are grateful to Dr. Judit Boros for confirming the authenticity of the present lot on the basis of a photograph (correspondence dated October 2015).