Mihály Munkácsy

(1844, Munkács, Kingdom of Hungary - 1900, Endenich, Germany)

Mihály Munkácsy (1844, Munkács, Kingdom of Hungary - 1900, Endenich, Germany) was a Hungarian painter, who lived in Paris and earned international reputation with his genre pictures and large scale biblical paintings.

Munkácsy was born Michael von Lieb to German parents in Munkács, from which he later gathered his pseudonym. After being apprenticed to itinerant painter Elek Szamossy, Munkácsy went to Pest, the capital city, where he sought the patronage of some established artists. With the help of the landscapist Antal Ligeti he received a grant from the state so he could study abroad. In 1865 he studied at the Academy of Vienna under Karl Rahl. In 1866 he went to Munich to study at the Academy, and in 1868 he moved to Düsseldorf to learn from the popular genre painter Ludwig Knaus. In 1867 he travelled to Paris to see the Universal Exposition. After this trip his style became much lighter, with broader brushstrokes and tonal colour schemes - he was probably influenced by modern French painting seen at the Exposition.