The New Student's Reference Work/Munkacsy, Mihaly

Munkacsy, Mihaly (mo͝on′kä-chē̇), a Hungarian painter, was born at Munkács, Hungary, Oct. 10, 1846. His real name was Michael Lieb; and his family, before the revolution of 1848, was one of modest affluence. The father having lost both property and life in the uprisings of that year, the son was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker. He was encouraged in his first artistic attempts by Samosy, an artist of some reputation; and, having reached the Vienna Academy, he was enabled to study to some purpose under Adam (Franz). He went to Düsseldorf in 1867, and there painted The Last Day of a Condemned Man, which at once won him fame. He removed to Paris in 1870, married in 1874, and built himself an elegant mansion. His best known works in America are Milton dictating to His Daughters and Christ before Pilate. He visited the United States in 1886, and painted several portraits of prominent people in New York. His earlier works show the somber effects of his laborious life; his middle period something of the lightness of the Parisian environment; but his greatest fame was won in the third period of his development from the treatment of historic and sacred themes. He died near Bonn, May 1, 1900.