Munkacsy, Michael

moon-ka'che, Michael (1846-1900), a modern Hungarian painter. He was the son of a peasant named Lieb, and was trained as a carpenter. but took lessons from a strolling artist and adopted the name of his native village, Munkacs, as a surname. His early paintings were so far successful that he was able to study at Munich and later at Dusseldorf. His first great success was The Last Day of a Condemned Man, which he exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1870. He then took up his residence in the French capital. Some of his lighter pieces are Going to School, The Kitchen Politician, The Butter Woman, and The Pawn Shop. Some of his most famous paintings are owned in America. Milton in his Blindness Dictating Paradise Lost hangs in the Lenox Library, New York. John Wanamaker of Philadelphia paid $120,000 for Christ Before Pilate, and with princely generosity permitted it to be exhibited from city to city for the good it might do. It is considered a masterly work. The Last Moments of Mozart was purchased by General Russell Alger of Detroit for $50,000. It is too early for a final estimate, but Munkacsy bids fair to have a place among the noted painters of the world. See Painting