In 1874, two years after he settled in Paris, Munkácsy married the titled widow of a French general. The room depicted in this painting was in their richly decorated apartment on the Avenue de Villiers. Here musical gatherings were held, and occasionally fellow Hungarian Franz Liszt performed. Munkácsy's Parisian residence, a meeting place for fashionable society, was the setting for a large number of pictures painted between 1878, the date of this work, and 1887.
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Credit Line:Bequest of Martha T. Fiske Collord, in memory of her first husband, Josiah M. Fiske, 1908
Object Number:08.136.11
Inscription: Signed (lower right): Munkacsy
[Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris]; Martha T. Fiske Collord, New York (until 1908)
New York. Knoedler. "An Exhibition of Paintings and Prints of Every Description, on the Occasion of Knoedler, One Hundred Years, 1846–1946," April 1–27, 1946, no. 73.
New York. Barnard College. "Feminine Elegance Through the Centuries," November 17–December 19, 1958, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "La Belle Epoque," December 6, 1982–September 4, 1983, unnum. checklist.
Budapest. Hungarian National Gallery. "Munkácsy in the World: Mihály Munkácsy's Works in Private and Public Collections at Home and Abroad," March 24–July 31, 2005, no. 42.
Dezsö Malonyay. Munkácsay Mihály. Vol. 2, Budapest, 1907, p. 17.
B[ryson]. B[urroughs]. "Bequest of the Late Mrs. Martha T. Fiske Collord." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 3 (November 1908), p. 200.
C[harles]. Sedelmeyer. M. von Munkácsy: Sein Leben und seine künstlerische Entwicklung. Paris, 1914, pp. 70–71, ill., as "Familienkonzert (Family Concert)".
Zsolt Harsányi. Munkácsy Mihály Képei. Budapest, [1934], ill. p. 105.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 71.
Prof. L[ajos]. Végvári. Katolog der Gemälde und zeichnungen Mihály Munkácsys. Budapest, 1959, p. 51, no. 253, pl. LXXXIX [Hungarian ed., 1958], calls it "Am Klavier".
András Székely. Munkácsy. 1980, pp. 10, 19, 27, 35, colorpl. 43, dates it 1879.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 238, ill.
Zsuzsanna Bakó inMunkácsy in the World: Mihály Munkácsy's Works in Private and Public Collections at Home and Abroad. Ed. Ferenc Gosztonyi. Exh. cat., Hungarian National Gallery. Budapest, 2005, pp. 169, 230, no. 42, ill. p. 173 (color), dates it 1879.
Camille Pissarro (French, Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas 1830–1903 Paris)
1891–92
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