Mihály Munkácsy

1844–1900 · Hungary

The Hungarian painter of three enormous canvases of Christ's Passion, which he never saw hanging together.

See the 4 works Walk them in order

From Munkács to Paris

Mihály Munkácsy was born Mihály Leó Lieb on February 20, 1844, in Munkács, Hungary (today Mukachevo, Ukraine), and took his name from his hometown. He was apprenticed to a traveling painter, studied in Vienna, Munich and Düsseldorf, and in the 1870s settled in Paris, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Sources: Wikipedia, Mihály Munkácsy

Head of Christ (study for Christ Before Pilate), oil by Mihály Munkácsy, 1880

Head of Christ (study for Christ Before Pilate), 1880

Oil

Image from the Munkácsy Foundation

The trilogy

In the 1880s and 1890s he painted three huge canvases of the last hours of Christ: Christ Before Pilate (1881), Golgotha (1884) and Ecce Homo (1896). His dealer toured them across Europe and the United States. The American department-store owner John Wanamaker bought the first two and showed them in his Philadelphia store every Easter.

The Déri Museum in Debrecen, Hungary, quotes Munkácsy: “Én az emberi alakban megjelent Istent akartam ábrázolni” (I wanted to paint God, who appeared in human form).

Sources: Wikipedia, Mihály Munkácsy · Déri Museum, Debrecen: the Munkácsy trilogy

Ecce Homo, 1896

Oil on canvas

Déri Museum, Debrecen (Hungarian state)

Together at last

Munkácsy never saw the three paintings side by side. They were first shown together on August 25, 1995, at the Déri Museum, and since 2009 they have hung in a special wing there. In 2014 the Hungarian government bought Christ Before Pilate for $5.7 million.

His last years were darkened by illness; he died near Bonn on May 1, 1900, and is buried in Budapest.

Sources: Déri Museum, Debrecen: the Munkácsy trilogy · Wikipedia, Mihály Munkácsy