Katalin Sz. Kürti: Mihály Munkácsy and Photography

With his life and oeuvre, Mihály Munkácsy created a bridge between East and West. He was born in Munkács, at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains in 1844. He studied at the academies of Vienna and Munich between 1865 and 1867. Then he worked in Düsseldorf till 1871. At the turn of years 1871-72, he moved to Paris and lived there unti) 1896. He died in Endenich, near Bonn and was buried in Budapest on 1^st May 1900. His early pictures were rooted in Biedermeier (German middle-class style in the first half of the 19^th century) and his first significant pictures were influenced by the romantic pathos of historical painting. It was accompanied by French and German realism and his paintings Condemned Cell and Linen Shredders reflect these effects. In these works with his individual approach, he showed the fate of Hungarian peasants adding to national self-knowledge and self-consciousness. His salon pictures painted in Paris and his Barbizon and Colpach landscapes represent the rejuvenation and renewal of his art with their rich colours. His most famous portraits prove his power of character description. He applied his talent to almost every topic and genre and his success was spectacularly proven in his pictures depicting cultural history and biblical themes. The “industry” of his age, art trade, opened up great opportunities for him but at the same time it also harmed him. It made him rich and world famous at first, but then he fell into oblivion and was the subject of controversial debates. Today, after 120 years have passed since the creation of his grand pictures and triumphant progress -considered an attraction then- we can evaluate his oeuvre objectively. In addition to his qualities we should respect the sincerity of his attempts and his impressive creative passion.

He is one of the greatest Hungarian painters and he achieved a series of international successes in the last third of 19^th century. With his Condemned Cell he won one of the gold medals of the Paris Salon. He was awarded the gold medal for Milton in 1878 at the Paris World Fair. His monumental pictures Christ in front of Pilate (1881) and Golgotha (1884) went around the world and then were passed over to American proprietorship. Also, Milton was purchased by the New York Public Library. The Pawnbroker’s and The Popes can be found in the Metropolitan Art Museum. The art galleries of The Hague, Munich, Cologne, Berlin and Musee d’Orsay, in Paris, each own one of his paintings. His panno Renaissance Apotheosis decorates the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

About 150 of his works are kept in Hungary. The collection at the Hungarian National Gallery is the most important one besides the collections in the Déri Museum (Debrecen) and the Munkácsy Museum in Békéscsaba. The two “Christ” pictures were returned to Hungarian custodianship in 1995 from the Wanamaker collection in Philadelphia, and can be seen in the Déri Museum in Debrecen.

The stages and changes of his life, and his relationships are reflected in the rich collection of photographs that represents an overview of the heroic age of Hungarian photography. The collection also contains significant German, French, Luxembourgian and American photos as well. The first photos of him were taken in Pest. He kept contact with two photographers who used to be painters and studied in Paris: Antal Somogyi and Joseph Borsos. They took photos of him between 1863 and 1865. In one of the pictures the young painter is pulling faces in front of a body support, which suggests that he was a close friend (or student) of the photographer.

Later, when his homecoming was celebrated, the portraits taken in the studios of Borsos, Klösz, Ellinger, Strelisky and Koller’s promoted his stardom. On German land Hanfstaengl, Overbeck, Stüting, in Paris first Fd. Mulnier, Disdéri, Dagron, then A. Braun and Paul Nadar took portrait photos of him and of the interiors of his palaces. His wife’s estate in Colpach, Luxemburg was visited by photographers working for Bernhoeft and Ch. Brandebourgh. During his stay in America in 1886, Mora, the Cuban photographer, and the Hungarian, Mihály Ketskeméthy, took photos of him.

We can get an informative inside view of the process of creation through his model photos; they represent the path from his original idea and studies to the completed piece of work. During his years in Munich and Düsseldorf, at first poverty and then later the lack of time forced him use photos. Wedding- feast Inviters was painted in Munich and at present its whereabouts is unknown. This is why the couple of photographic studies, probably done in 1867, are especially significant. Behind the figures head and body supports can be seen, just as in the photographic studies of the picture Condemned Cell which was awarded a gold medal in Paris. We only know the name of the photographer of the model photos for Condemned Cell. Munkácsy had the excellent, large-size photos taken in G. & A. Overbeck’s studio in Düsseldorf. This means that either he dressed German models in the clothes taken from Békéscsaba and Debrecen or that the photos were taken in Pest by Borsos (and copied in Düsseldorf). The Hungarian National Gallery and the Museum of Békéscsaba store model photos of the conversation pieces Linen Shredders (1871), Night-hawks (1873), (and) The Village Hero (1875), together with photos to his later narrative paintings in Dutch style and his salon pictures. There are three important photo studies “Christ” pictures. The models were dressed in costumes in his studio and the only group photo was taken of them to Christ in front of Pilate. It was taken by his friend, Marquis de Suse, in the autumn of 1880. The dress designer, the set designer, the director of the scene, i.e. the intellectual creator, was the painter himself. Even at this stage he knew what he wanted to achieve and he was driven by the goal to be definitive. Almost all the twenty persons were standing on their later places; and in the painting he just changed the position of Christ to face the audience. He dressed himself in costume as well and had a photo taken. He was standing between Pilate and the man holding a caoutchouc doll. The photo showing Munkácsy on the crucifix might have been taken in the summer 1882 and he used it for the second picture.

At this time he did not only use photos to make his preliminary studies but also to create finished works. They were of special importance in the case of his grand “Christ” pictures (1881, 1884) and The Hungarian Conquest, sized six by thirteen metres. He organised a tour to collect motives for the picture to be painted for the Hungarian Parliament. He had Ferenc Écsy, László Schabinsky and the Dunky brothers take photos of typical figures in northern and southern Hungary and in Transylvania in 1891. He painted the half-size version in 1892, where the contours were projected on the canvas.

The painter was bravely making use of the possibilities offered by photography and the results were positive. He started visiting photographic studios to further his learning, and it is just possible that he did learn the technique as since 1874, with the spread of the so-called dry technique, it became simpler. It is also possible that he had bought a camera at that time, but it is certain that in 1883 he did possess one. He also owned a carbide-lit projector. It is fairly certain that he did have the work done by others because while he had the financial background, he lacked the time. When he was painting his big pictures, he could afford to assign tasks to his assistants and amateur friends. We know that Prince Wrede and marquis Suse were among them. However, he was always the main producer from the beginning (1867-68) to the end, sketching the different compositions, designing and completing them. He had his models sit in another room and he would go there periodically to study them. This was the case with photographic studies as well. He used the resources and the ideas that others had already tried, very economically both in his life and in his oeuvre. But he derived inspiration mostly from his own knowledge of people and life, his view of reality and his intellectual resources.

Zsuzsa Farkas: An Opinion about the Role of Model Photos in the Oeuvre of Mihály Munkácsy

The study systematically describes Munkácsy’s different motivation for using photos and tries to provide answers to the question “Why and how did Munkácsy use photographic studies for his paintings?”.

In his first works he merely modelled movements. Later, setting expressive movements, he tried to portray emotions with the help of photos. The photos, set in advance, enhanced the precise understanding of compositional arrangement, especially in the case of the scene showing the masses in the painting Christ in front of Pilate. At the end of his career he collected anthropological samples in photo-portraits for the picture The Hungarian Conquest and used them in his encyclopedic painting. If we take a chronological look at the model photos, we can see how the role of the photos changed in Munkácsy’s artistic work. As the essence and the role of the painting changed in the artist’s oeuvre, his relationship with the photos also changed.