MUNKACSY. MIcitAEL (1844 1900). An Hungarian historical and genre paint er, whose real name was Michael Lieh. He was born at Alunkdes. February 20, 1844. the son of a petty official. became an orphan at an early age, and in 1855 was apprentieed to a joiner. After several years of hard work and privation, chance threw him in the way of the portrait-painter Szamossy at Gyula, who aided and befriended him. as did also the landscape painter Liget i, at Budapest. whither Munk5esy had gone in 1563. A small grant from the art society there enabled him to study for a year (1565) at the AeademY in 'Vienna, after which lie proceeded to :Munich, where lie studied under Alexander Warmer. and found a special protector in Franz Adam. the battle painter•. In 1565 he went to Dfisseldorf to work under EEnaus. Two years later his first im portant picture. "The Last Day of a Condemned Man" (iii the collection of Mrs. W. 1'. Wilstach, Philadelphia), took Paris by storm, bringing him the gold medal. llis future was forthwith as sured, and in 1872 he took up his residence in Paris, where for several years lie continued to depict episodes from the popular life of his na tiVe country with impressive truthfulness and a sombre, blackish coloring. In 1876 he entered upon a new- field, painting a series of charming Paris interiors, in which he adopted a richer coloring, hut his most important production of this period was "Milton Dictating Paradise Lost" (1877, Lenox Library, New York). It was not, however, until 1881 that lie reached his own ideal with the completion of the now world-famous "Christ Before Pilate" (John Wanamaker, Phila delphia), which has become one of the most wide ly discussed pictures of recent times. It was
exhibited all over Europe and in the United States in 1386, on which 'occasion ninkriesy visit ed New York. In IS84 lie painted his second biblical subject, "Christ on Calvary," like its predecessor replete with dramatic life, treated in the light of history with ethnographic reality and supreme coloristic vigor. It also was brought to America in 1SS7, and the artist's next impor tant work, "The Last Moments of Mozart" (1886), a touching representation of the dying composer rehearsing his famous Requiem, found its way into the collection of Gen. Russell A. Alger, Detroit, Mich. Ilis subsequent creations were of a decorative character, and comprise the "Apotheosis of the Fine Arts," for the Art-His torical Museum in Vienna. and "Arplid Taking Possession of Hunga Ty" ( 1896) , for the new House of Parliament in Budapest. The strain and dis appointments connected with this work brought on a mental disease, and the artist passed the last three years of his life in the sanitarium at Endenic•h, near Bonn, where he died, May I, 1900. Many of the prominent public and private collec tions of the United States contain examples of his paintings. Consult: Tahi. in Die Kunst fiir Atte, xv. (Munich, 1900).