Fashionable, Expensive, Attractive: Salon Paintings and the Munkácsy Brand - 7
PORTRAIT OF FRANZ LISZT
Franz Liszt. Guests at the Munkácsy Salon
1886
The Munkácsys' mansion became a meeting place for Parisian high society — the French writer and critic Albert Wolff described the couple's fashionable salon as "the height of Parisian elegance". At their receptions, literary figures and composers, scientists, critics, and art dealers mingled with the cream of the Parisian aristocracy and of the cosmopolitan art scene — an extraordinarily diverse company ranging from the president of the French Republic to Munkácsy's penniless students (József Rippl-Rónai among them).
The international celebrity Franz Liszt, the most famous Hungarian composer of his day and a close friend of the Munkácsys, was a regular guest at the couple's home. "Liszt, who had come to Paris to have his portrait painted by his distinguished fellow countryman - his final portrait, for posterity — gave his swansong there, with unforgettable success", wrote one contemporary French newspaper. One of the composer's final appearances was in fact at the Munkácsys' salon, on 22 March 1886, at a celebration given in his honour. Mrs Munkácsy wrote of it in a letter:
"My word, what a fine and festive evening it was! Diplomats, the most illustrious ladies of France, and all the greats of art and literature were there. Liszt was marvellous, perfection itself. How splendid it was to see him at the piano, this venerable old man with his long white hair, and the whole room under his spell. Everyone was on their feet; the depth of feeling was indescribable. Miska and Liszt embraced one another, deeply moved. It was a triumph for these two great Hungarian artists.”
Liszt was a guest of the couple for almost the whole of his last visit to Paris. It was then that Munkácsy painted his final portrait, one of the most important paintings in Munkácsy's oeuvre and in contemporary Hungarian portraiture.