Pirint Andrea: Munkácsy Miskolcon (Múzeumi Mozaik 5. Miskolc, 2006)

In the next section of the exhibition we get a glimpse of the artist's talent for landscape painting. A change can be noticed in his pictures of this theme from the early 1880s on. They show a broader handling of the paintbrush and an effort to produce bigger canvases. A spectacular example of this is Ploughing in Colpach (Szántás Colpachon). The Washerwomen (Mosó asszonyok) belongs to the later pictures. Although it is less energetic than the previous one, the lyricism with which it pulsates easily makes up for it. It was in 1891 that Munkácsy last visited Miskolc. He visited his parents' grave and called on his relatives, also collecting material for his painting The Taking of the Hungarian Homeland (Honfoglalás), which he produced for the Hungarian Parliament. He went to see the countrywide fair, which was taking place at that time, and with the help of a photographer in Miskolc, László Schabinszky, he took pictures of typical local peasant faces. The exhibition presents the original glass negatives and the paper prints made from them. The exhibits in the next display commemorate the widely respected former art historian of the Herman Ottó Museum, Dr Lajos Végvári. Professor Végvári was the greatest expert on Munkácsy from the 1940s onwards. His monograph was published in 1958 which included a catalogue of his oeuvre. Even today this is considered the 'bible' of Munkácsy's art. The last exhibit of the collection is Ballad (Ballada), which takes us back to the world of the salons. To the best of our knowledge the painter produced over fifty salon paintings, which amount roughly to one tenth of his oeuvre. They constitute an important element of his art, yet even today the public can rarely if ever see any of them. The reason for this is that these popular works found homes for themselves even before the paint was dry on them and have been kept in private collections ever since. This is also the history of Ballad (Ballada), which was taken to the United States immediately after the final brush stroke and has stayed there ever since. As it is the private property of Imre Pákh, this is the first time that both researchers and the Hungarian public can take a close look at it. This composition, along with other salon paintings exhibited here, takes us nearer to a less well-known section of the painter's oeuvre.