Gosztonyi Ferenc szerk.: Munkácsy a nagyvilágban (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2005/1)

I. TANULMÁNYOK - MUNKÁCSY A NAGYVILÁGBAN - BOROS Judit: Egy magyar festő Párizsban. Munkácsy Mihály pályája 1870 és 1896 között

4L kép Ebédelő házaspár / Married Couple Having Lunch egyetlen lehetősége. Természetesen az első párizsi évben még meggondolhatta volna magát, és ha Cécile Papier de Marches valamilyen tekintetben meghatározó szerepet játszott Munkácsy pályájának alakulásában, akkor csakis ebben: a köztük szövődő viszony, amely bizonyos jelek szerint már 1872 nyarán elkezdődött,

3- eleve kizárta Munkácsy hazatérését.

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'' Nagyon keveset tudunk erről az időszakról: Munkácsy szétvágja egy már kész képét, amely ráadásul „tetszett Goupilnak", öngyilkosságot kísérel meg de Marches-ék colpachi palotájában, depressziós, „fél, hogy nem tud eleget tenni a felé irányuló elvárásoknak"

37 — vagyis csupa olyasmi, ami mély személyiségi és alkotói válságra utal. Munkácsv maga soha nem írt vagy beszélt erről az időszakról, de az előbb felsorolt események bizonyossá teszik, hogy tudatosan választotta azt az életformát, amelyet az elkövetkező negyedszázadban folytatott. I860 előtt Goupil Európa legnagyobb metszetkiadójának számított.

38 (40. kép) A céget a restauráció végén alapították, és sokáig vegyes régiségkereskedésként és metszetkiadóként működött.

39 Kirendeltségei voltak La Haye-ban, Brüsszelben, Londonban és New Yorkban, ahol már 1846-tól Michel Knoedler vezette a helyi fiókot. 1858-ban kimondottan metszet-előképként rendelte meg Goupil Gérőme-tól a IJX mort de César, majd a L'Assassinat du duc de Guise című kompozíciókat. A Cézár halálát ábrázoló festmény rövid időn belül megjelent Knoedler New In a letter dated 20 May, 1870, Munkácsy was able to break the great news to Ligeti that "the jury awarded one of the gold medals to my picture."

34 The first good news was quickly followed by a second: "On top of that, I can also inform you that Goupil (spelt Koupil m the original: Zoltán Farkas published the name with the correct spelling) came over herefrom Paris to meet me in person and to order paintings from me, with the immediate result that I have accepted a commission to paint two pictures for 10,000 thalers, under the further provision that we would split the profit after the sale. Therefore, I can hope to get another 2,000 thalers on top. In addition, I have the further advantage of an offer to have the two paintings published in the form of copperplate engraving, similarly to Knaus's Golden Wedding. Goupil also told me that ever since Knaus's first appearance, there had not been another painting exhibited in the Salon to equal the general approval of The Last Day of a Condemned Man, in acknowledgment of which Gérome sent his message of special admiration through Goupil, and on hearing that I was about to go to Paris in the next few days, he invited me to see him. Therefore, I have commissions aplenty quantum satis, now 1 have to get busy painting, there is no need to worry about money. (My italics — J. B.) The letter captures the precise moment when Munkácsy stepped on the path offered to him by the art market. Goupil, who was in such a hurry to get to Düsseldorf before anybody else, was one of the most important art dealers of the 1860s. Adolphe Goupil played a far greater part in setting the course for Munkácsy's career than art historians had presumed earlier: it was thanks to him that Munkácsy suddenly discovered how it felt to make a lot of money in the "Mecca of the art world"; that he learned what he would have to do to be financially successful; and that if he wanted to continue living m Pans, he had no other option. Naturally, he could have had second thoughts about his career in his first few years in Paris, and if Cécile Papier de Marches played any part in his career, this would have to be this: their relationship, which probably began as early as the summer of 1

872,

30 ab ovo excluded the possibility of Munkácsy's return to Hungary.

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1 We know very little about this period: Munkácsy cut to pieces a finished composition, which "Goupil actually liked"; he attempted to commit suicide in the home of the de Marcheses in Colpach; he suffered from depression, "fearing that he would be unable to live up to people's expectations towards him":'' these are frets that point to his experiencing a deep personal and creative crisis. Although Munkácsy never talked about this period himself, the events listed above suggest that he deliberately chose the lifestyle that would characterise his life in the next quarter of a century. Before I860, Goupil was the largest publisher of prints in Europe.

38 (III. 40) Established near the end of the Bourbon Restoration, the company functioned as an antique dealership and publisher of prints for some time.'

9 It had branches in La Haye, Brussels, and London, as well as in New York, where Michel Knoedler acted as head of the local branch from as early as 1846. In 1858 Goupil com-