Magyar News, 1999. szeptember-2000. augusztus (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2000-06-01 / 10. szám
Christ in front of Pilot, 1881 patrons in the United States and were sold for large sums of money to such famous American businessmen as Cornelius and William Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, William Astor, August Belmont, and Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer, the well-known American newspaper publisher, who was Hungarian-born, hosted a banquet in Page 4 Munkacsy's honor when the artist toured the United States in 1886 to promote his painting Christ Before Pilate. On this occasion, Pulitzer toasted Munkácsy, saying, "...we welcome him because he is not only a great artist but a Hungarian.... ...Tonight we are all Hungarians - we are all Americans". While he was here in America, Munkácsy also took on a number of portrait commissions, particularly of the families of wealthy businessmen. These portraits were known to be flattering and rich with decorative detail, and can be compared to those of John Singer Sargent, the American society portrait artist, who also painted some of the same individuals. It may have been the influence of seeing the paintings of Tintoretto in the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice in 1874 that eventually led Munkácsy to paint his trilogy of paintings portraying Christ, of which Christ Before Pilate was the first, completed in 1881. The second, Golgotha, was finished in 1884. Both paintings won great acclaim for the artist throughout Europe and in his native country. However, it was an American, John Wanamaker, the Philadelphia department store owner, who purchased the paintings, displaying them first in his country home and later in a special room of the Wanamaker store. They were shown there until 1988. A third picture, Ecce Homo, completing the trilogy, was finished in-1896. Since 1930, Dusty Road, 1883
