Munkacs, MICHAEL

Munkacs, MICHAEL, painter, whose real surname is LIEB, was born at Munkacs, 10th October 1846. He went a turner's apprentice to Vienna, and studied painting there, at Munich, and at Düsseldorf, and in 1872 settled in Paris. Except a few portraits, his works are nearly all genre-pictures. Three classes may be distinguished—those depicting Hungarian life, mostly very dark in colouring, as 'The Condemned,' 'War-time,' 'Night-roamers,' 'Village Hero,' and others; those illustrative of the social life of Paris, much lighter and brighter in tone, as 'Munkacs,' in his Studio,' 'Father's Birthday,' 'Two Families,' &c.; historical pieces, of which 'Milton dictating Paradise Lost to his Daughters,' 'Christ before Pilate,' 'Crucifixion,' 'Mozart's Last Moments,' and 'Ecce Homo' are best known. Vigorous characterisation and pictorial breadth are conspicuous traits. Insane from 1897, he died 1st May 1900.