MUNKÁCSY, Mihály

The year 1874 was a turning point in Munk�csy’s life: he married the widow of Baron de Marches, which changed his lifestyle fundamentally. The painter, who had an impoverished childhood and was just as penniless as a young artist, all of a sudden became rich; now he came to live in a luxurious villa and had a busy social life. His new lifestyle soon became apparent in his art, too. Following his wife’s advise, he gave up painting realist genres, and started to produce the so-called salon pictures, which depicted scenes from the social life of the bourgeoisie.

In “Baby Visitors” the young mother and her new-born baby are visited by girl-friends, but the real topic of the picture is the luxurious interior of the bourgeois salon and the elegant dress of the ladies. The wonderful richness of colours is the greatest merit of this painting. From the time of the salon paintings his entire oeuvre was characterized by this brilliance; the grim and dark pictures were replaced by bright and joyful paintings. The colours of this painting represent the high quality of Munk�csy’s colourism.

When the picture was painted, newspapers and plays in the 19th c. had a favourite subject matter: a peasant who comes home drunk. Readers and spectators followed the events with laughter when the staggering husband argued cheekily with his shrewish wife. Munk�csy did not consider the subject matter as humorous. His approach shows seriousness and sympathy and this scene meant a part of peasant life him. The husband only wanted to have a good time that night. His wife knows that and is not quarrelling, she is feeding her smallest child. But what is going to happen to them in the future? The husband’s friend who accompanied him home prepared a speech in protection of the husband. Hunger is a natural state here.

The silent drama is highlighted by whites contrasting with dark colours, blues, browns and dark reds, recalling the atmosphere of aroom in a peasant home.

Munk�csy saw Tintoretto’s four huge “passion” pictures in the Scuola di San Rocco, Venice, for the first time. Then he arrived to Budapest and spent two weeks in Kalocsa in the residence of Lajos Haynald, archbishop, a sponsor of ecclesiastical art and a friend of Franz Liszt. Munk�csy must have had the idea of painting the trilogy by then. He started to study the works of Rembrandt and Rubens and after thirty-five studies and sketches in oil, he painted the first composition sketch at the Easter of 1880. The picture was introduced to Karl Sedelmeyer, his sponsor, in Sedelmeyer’s palace in Paris. The success which followed the exhibitions in Vienna, Budapest and more than twenty towns in Great Britain was enormous. Sedelmeyer completed the exhibition with sketches, studies, books and cuts. He took the picture to America in November 1886. Munk�csy spent six weeks in New York, Philadelphia and Washington and painted portraits. John Wanamaker, a millionaire, bought the pictures “Christ before Pilate” and “Golgotha” for 120,000 and 100,000 dollars, respectively, in 1887, although some sources claimed that the prices he payed were 175,000 and 160,000 dollars, respectively. Both pictures were borrowed to the World Exhibiton in Paris in 1889 and Wanamaker took them himself to the Chicago Exhibition in 1893. The two pictures were kept in the gallery of his country residence until 1907. When a fire broke out there, the pictures were removed and restored. In 1911-88 the two pictures faced each other in the gallery of the Wanamaker-store on the 8th floor together with pictures by other painters. At the Sotheby’s auction in 1988 there was a Canadian man bidding for the picture on the telephone and who bought it in the end. It turned out later that it was Joseph T. Tanenbaum. The picture arrived in Debrecen on 2nd February 1995. After restoration by Mikl�s Szentkir�lyi, Istv�n Lente and Erzs�bet B�res in the spring of 1995, it was exhibited in Hungary on 25th August 1995, 113 years after its first exhibition in Hungary. This was in fact the first time that the complete Christ trilogy was exhibited.

Although the enormous trilogy relies on the words of the Bible (John 18 and 19, and Luke 23), yet it condenses them as well. The picture shows a victorious Christ who is standing in the middle with a radiant whiteness and defeats his spiteful enemies and the hesitating Roman governor. Several contemporary artists (Ivanov, Antokolski, and Gustave Dor�) were engaged in the subject matter of the “passion”, but Munk�csy’s work is second to none. He did not only prove that he knew the Bible, but he demonstrated his psychological skills, that he knew his age and himself, too. He went through the biblical events in a changing age full of doubts and he used it as an excuse to express his thoughts on and disappointment in the world and ethic.

In the summer of 1873 Munk�csy was invited by Baron and Baroness de Marches to their estate in Colpach. The countryside reminded the artist of this strugglesome childhood and years of apprenticeship, the humiliations he had to suffer and the poverty. All these deepen the realism in the depiction. The primal tone of the painting is dark, too. the whites are shining brightly; the tired face of the woman, her rugged hands and humble dress, and the simple commodities of her surrounding represent the hard work and her arduous life. Munk�csy has created a truly realist genre painting, it is imbued with the sadness the artist felt when he was forced to face reality and it is filed with a quiet contemplation. “Churning Woman” is a masterpiece; Munk�csy’s artistic approach show the assimilation of Courbet’s and Leibl’s influence.

The outlaw’s life and figure was a major concern for Munk�csy ever since his childhood. It is known from his “Memoirs” that he suffered much during the years of apprenticeship and that he always wanted to see a living outlaw as a symbol of free life even if he had to wait for him under a table in the inn.

In addition to producing genre paintings, portraits and still-lifes, Munk�csy was also a successful landscape painter. Following his visit to his young friend, the landscapist L�szl� Pa�l in Barbizon, he frequently painted landscapes by way of relaxation. The two versions of the painting Dusty Country Road commemorate the painter’s visit to his homeland in 1874. (Munk�csy moved to Paris in 1871.) While in the 1874 version the blurred outlines of a farm house by the road are also shown, in the 1883 version Munk�csy seemed to have been interested only in recording the atmosphere. Painting this landscape brought Munk�csy closer to the Impressionists, of whom he actually thought very little, and even to Turner, whose works he had seen during a brief visit to London.

In 1874 Munk�csy visited the town of his childhood in Hungary, B�k�scsaba. The two versions (executed in 1874 and 1883) of the painting Dusty Country Road commemorate the painter’s visit to his homeland.

A cart is moving on the road slowly, stirring up the dust painted pink by the beams of the sun. This canvas is a pink vision flooded with light, a snapshot almost approaching plein-air painting. It sheds light on Munk�csy’s new approach to Nature, and it also reveals a potential path, which the painter, unfortunately, never pursued. Contemporary critiques often called this small masterpiece impressionist: he himself, however, refused to have anything to do with this style. The only other painting in which such a painterly approach is evident is “Dusty Road I”: in the paintings to come he returned to the style of realism.

The second episode in the chonology of the Bible was painted as the third picture of Munk�csy’s trilogy. The other two pictures had been in Philadelphia for years when Munk�csy was persuaded by G�bor K�d�r, a Hungarian graphic artist and printer, to make the trilogy complete. (In fact, it was K�d�r who arranged for the pictures to be taken on tour to exhibit them.) Munk�csy’s choice of subject matter was probably influenced by “The Governor of Judaea”, a short story by Anatole France and by Munk�csy’s impaired health and mental status. All this urged him to paint the second and painful meeting of Christ and Pilate instead of Christ’s glorious resurrection or ascension.

The portrait of the Saviour reflects Munk�csy’s state of mind. Pilate introduces him to his people by saying, “Ecce Homo!”. Christ is not guilty according to the laws of Rome, Pilate says to the people who respond to Pilate’s words with gestures. The gestures of men are rude and indicate attack, while those of women are gentle and protective. Munk�csy’s contemporaries identified Mary, John, the Evangelist, the penitent Magdalene, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arithea and Judas in the picture. Munk�csy’s picture is rather descriptive. The last work of the tired master was taken to the Millenary Exhibition in Budapest by Munk�csy himself.

Later, the picture was exhibited in Vienna, Bruxelles, England and Ireland. James Joyce, a young man at the time, saw it in Dublin in 1899. Although “Ecce Homo” was taken to America, too, it never met the other two pictures of the trilogy there because first they were in the country residence of Wanamaker and later, in 1907-11, they were restored. In 1911, a Munk�csy Room was opened in Wanamaker’s department store, yet the two journalists who described it never even mentioned “Ecce Homo”. They went to Philadelphia in order to find out if Wanamaker was willing to give the picture to Hungary as “Ecce Homo” had been exhibited in Venice and Budapest in 1914. It was suggested that Munk�csy’s Trilogy should be placed side by side in a roman catholic cathedral to be built. John Wanamaker was ready to sell the pictures but even the sum of 120,000 crowns required for “Ecce Homo” by the English - American consortium could never be raised. In the meantime, World War I broke out and nobody cared about culture. Frigyes D�ri, a trade counseller who had been living in Vienna, appeared in the right moment to solve the hopeless problem: he bought “Ecce Homo” for 76,000 gold crowns. In his last will, he left the picture together with his art collection to Debrecen. A gallery was built for it with skylights where the picture has been on show since 1930. In 1993 “Golgota” and in 1995 “Christ in Front of Pilate” were placed on both sides of “Ecce Homo”. Thus, efforts to unite the three pictures proved to be successful, although the exhibition of the trilogy is only a temporary one.

Munk�csy had been working on the second picture of the trilogy for some time when he had himself put on the cross to feel the pain Christ must have felt. After 15 sketches and studies, the picture was ready by the Easter of 1884. Sedelmeyer had the picture “Christ before Pilate” brought back from Scotland and he showed both canvasses in the garden of his palace in Paris. The success was so frenetic that even Maupassant mentioned them in his novel “Bel Ami”. The picture was first exhibited in the former Art Gallery (now Art School) in Budapest in September 1884. Munk�csy said that he had been thinking of painting a new picture on resurrection to make the trilogy complete. This plan could not be carried out because church leaders failed to raise enough money to keep both pictures in Hungary: Sedelmeyer required too high a sum for “Golgotha” so it was exhibited in Europe, then in New York, and then it was finally bought by John Wanamaker. Thus, it shared the fate of “Christ before Pilate” until 1988 when it was bought by Csaba Gyula Bereczki, a gallery owner of Hungarian origin. The picture is now exhibited with his permission. “Golgotha” was a much more difficult task for Munk�csy than the first or third picture of the trilogy. The latter ones showed scenes indoors, while that of “Golgota” in open air on the Hill of the Skulls. Limited space was amjor factor in composing both pictures, whereas the huge space of the landscape almost swallows both groups of people: in the one group, Christ and the mourners are portrayed, and in the other a group on-lookers and passers-by can be seen. The most interesting figures are portrayed in this delicately depicted group: an uninterested Jewish joiner, a Jew who is running away and beating his breast, and an Arab rider, a myterious, yet symbolic figure. The merits of the picture lie in expressive colours and the portrayal of landscape. The sky reflects the drama in a threatening way which cannot be helped and of which all evangelists reported briefly.

After 107 years, “Golgotha” arrived to Budapest in the autumn of 1991. After restoration by Mikl�s Szentkir�lyi, Istv�n Lente and P�ter Menr�th in 1992-93, it was exhibited in the Magyar Nemzeti M�zeum, Budapest at Easter 1993 and it has been on show in the Munk�csy Hall, D�ri Museum, Debrecen, since 1993.

Munk�csy often spent the summer at his wife’s estate in Colpach. Colpach Castle, located in Colpach-Bas near Ell in western Luxembourg, dates from the beginning of the 14th century. The castle was originally a small medieval stronghold surrounded by a moat, it was adapted as a manor house in the 18th century. In about 1870, Baron Edouard de Marches, the first husband of Munk�csy’s wife, laid out the gardens surrounding the castle. Munk�csy and his wife spent their summers in Colpach Castle and the winters in Paris.

Munk�csy painted this landscape in Colpach. Partially owing to the influence of L�szl� Pa�l, Munk�csy’s landscape painting started to bloom during the 1880s. This painting is also closely related to Pa�l’s intimate and lyrical landscapes. The light is sifting through the foliage, radiating intimacy: the multitude of hues and tones within the brown basic colour make the painting exciting.

Artistically not satisfied with just painting salon pictures and landscape. Munk�csy longed for more profound themes. The painting “Milton” was the result of this search. Munk�csy depicted the blind poet dictating the text of “Paradise Lost” to his daughters Eve, Judith and Rachel. By portraying Milton, Munk�csy chose to talk about the deepness of human suffering, and about the painful and strugglesome life of the creative people. The wonderful colours of this painting evoke the brilliance of his salon pictures.

The outlaw’s life and figure was a major concern for Munk�csy ever since his childhood. It is known from his “Memoirs” that he suffered much during the years of apprenticeship and that he always wanted to see a living outlaw as a symbol of free life even if he had to wait for him under a table in the inn.

In the drama of “Condemned Cell”, he painted the embarrassed apprentice. Munk�csy had followed the life of his hero in his earliest genre pictures painted in 1867 or illustrations for journals. He needed an immense amount of skill in order to paint a true picture of a man condemned to death who had been given proper food and looked after for three days, and then his family, friends and enemies were to come to say good-bye to him. His wife is sobbing her heart out in a corner, his little daughter is pottering about not knowing what is going on and she is munching something. The outlaw must have resigned to his lot and has nothing more to expect of life: he throws the Bible to the ground. A patch of the blue sky becomes visible behind the bars.

“The Condemned Cell I” brought his first great success for Munk�csy in 1869. Later he produced several version of this theme. This second one differs from the first only in its size. It depicts the last hourst of a young lad who is condemned to death. The village folks are watching him curiously, the facial expression and gestures of every one of them shows a different kind of response: surprise, pity, or wen indifference. The lad’s clenched hand and the Bible thrown onto the floor reveal of his outhursting fury.

Munk�csy painted this canvas during the years he spent at the Munich art academy, where the psychological approach was very fashionable a that time. Having assimilated this trend, Munk�csy depicted the event with emotionally differenciated facial expressions and gestures. The bright white paint in the dark basic colour of the picture generates a grim effect - in accordance with the mental state of the characters. The use of many characters and their arrangement is theatrical to a certain degree - and in this respect the picture is reminiscent of the anedotical German genre style - nevertheless, its honest way of rendering and its sensitivity for the issues of this age make this painting a true masterpiece of Realism.

Memories from Hungary engaged Munk�csy during his period in Munich and it was the drama of these experiences which brought him success in Europe. Munk�csy’s nerves were shattered at that time: he was afraid that he would not be able to paint any more. Passionate experiences vanished but he had other subject matters to concentrate on. The contours of houses in this picture indicate a German town. The major figure in fetters is Hungarian, he looks like Munk�csy’s tramp. Embarressment on the faces and in the gestures of market women is so lively as if Munk�csy painted a genre-picture and characters in the country in Hungary.

The mother, another well-known figure from his pictures, embraces her child protectively. The red-haired man with a hump is raising his eyebrows and is trying to find out what is going on. The bearded outlaw with a hat is probably not fettered for the first time in his life: he despises people who are shocked around him.