The Hungarian Student, 1958 (2. évfolyam, 1-7. szám)
1958 / 4. szám
the Hungárián student 7 Plane and Brush by FERENC GYÖRGYEI “ . .. IN VAIN do I sit in the well heated dining room of the palace in Faubourg Saint Germaine, in vain does Henry serve Chateau d’Yquem with a dinner which praises his splendid past of twenty years of being a cook. Chère amie! My body is still shivering from the cold of the small Magyar town, Miskolc; my stomach is still aching with the want to have enough inside at least once in my life; my skin still itches, from the bites of the bed-bugs, and I feel again, with sudden pain all over my body, the strikes of the master .. Thus goes the letter Mihály Munkácsy wrote at the height of his career to one of his friends, the wife of a French painter. Indeed, he could never forget his childhood; the pains, the agony which would not have been tolerable even for a grown man. His uncle, a politically disfavored lawyer, also lived under difficult financial circumstances. The child, sensitive to colors, forms, and rhythm, was placed by him with a cabinet maker, called Lang in Miskolc. The young Munkácsy worked there as an apprentice and it was at master Lang’s workshop that he became acquainted with physical pain: Lang’s whippings, hunger, and worms. It was here that his spirit broke and he became so shy that even later the wealthy artist could not forget his tears of poverty. His life is a novel of adventures. In his youth he met a sign painter, Ede Fischer, and only by helping him paint signs for bars, inns, and butchershops did he satisfy his awakening curiosity. His talent was first recognized by Ede Szamossy, who in spite of the obstinate disapproval of his uncle, took the boy to Arad, which was a lively cultural center at that time. From Ede Szamossy, Munkácsy learned not only how to paint but it was with Szamossy’s help that he could finally continue his incomplete education. He wrote in one of his latest letters: “.. . I was never sure of myself. I was looking in amazement at a figure when it began to live under my brush. I was even happy sometimes because I had succeeded in putting down some colors, and then suddenly, doubt seized my throat. What am I? Did I have the right to leave the workshop ? Am I really a greater artist than my fellow-workers who became tough from the blows of the master? When this comes over me, all at once I feel that my painting is only dirt . . .” His doubts never left him even when good fortune began to appear in his life. He received orders for portraits in Arad and after sixteen months in the fall of 1883, he moved to the capital. It was then that he changed his name from Lieb to Munkácsy. Ligety, who at that time was already a successful artist, patronized him, and Munkácsy began to receive orders in Budapest for drawings and illustrations. Later, the Association of Formative Artists sent him to the master, Rahl, in Vienna. After Vienna, again he went to Budapest, and then to Munich and Paris. He saw the World’s Fair where Courbet’s paintings made a deep impression on him. He met László Paál, the great landscape painter, and a friendship developed between them which lasted all their lives. He finished his first great success, “The House of Tears,” which he sold to an American. The famous figure of the art world, Goupil during one visit to his stuido bought all of Munkácsy’s paintings. He returned to Hungary in triumph where he discovered with sudden despair that he was unable to continue to work. His old fears took hold of him once again, and it was only on his arrival back to Paris that he found relief in his friendship with László Paál. He was able to relax and resume his work. New colors and figures were created under his brush. Another great name of the art world, Sedelmayer, signed a contract with Munkácsy, agreeing to accept all his works for ten years. English, French, and Americans tried to reach him at his home to order a portrait. Money poured in, but he knew how to spend it. Munkácsy lived like an oligarch. His parties were the topic of the haute—volée of Paris. He was forced to work harder. After his ten-year contract with Sedelmayer lapsed and was not renewed, the former cabinetmaker apprentice became doubtful again. He overworked himself, and his long sickness finally ruined his health. He was put into a sanitarium, in Endenich where he died on May 1, 1900 after much physical and mental suffering. Munkácsy was one of Hungary’s greatest painters. Because of his strong sense of the dramatic and his powerful reproduction of living scenes, he is recognized as a great artist of the nineteenth century. His imagination reveals to us the dreams of the Bible, the intimacy of a scene, or the dark beauty of a forest. There are approximately seventy of his paintings in the United States. Among them are the “Golgotha” (in Philadelphia), “Jesus Before Pilate,” and “The Blind Milton” (in the New York Public Library). February 20th is the anniversary of Munkácsy’s birthday. It was one hundred and fourteen years ago that Mihály Munkácsy was born. During his life, he was both rich and poor, humiliated and triumphant, honored and beaten. His life was one full of color, sentiment, joy, and grief. He lived the lives of us all. The Blind Milton " by Mihály Munkácsy. The original is in the New York Public Library.
