Page 1 / 2
Ladislav Jozef Baltazár Eustach, Baron of Mednyánszky, was born in a small village in western Slovakia (then Hungary). His family was of noble descent and lived in a castle in northern Hungary. Mednyánszky could follow an extensive artistic career, as a child he received lessons from the Viennese landscape painter and watercolourist Thomas Ender, later he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He left the latter after the death of his professor, the French painter Isidore Pils, and worked independently.
In 1877 he exhibited one of his paintings for the first time, a landscape painting. From then on he travelled a lot through Europe, especially through Hungary and Slovakia. After the death of his mother he settled again in Northern Hungary and lived in seclusion for years. After that he travelled more and more, he probably spent most of his time in Paris. László Mednyánszky received the Prize of the Society of Fine Arts in Budapest, almost ten years later he had a solo exhibition in Paris at the Georges Petit Gallery - it will remain his only one. During the First World War he worked as a war painter and correspondent for the department of the imperial and royal war press headquarters of the Austro-Hungarian army and visited fronts in Serbia, Russia and South Tyrol. The art group was headed by Colonel Wilhelm John, who was also the director of the Army History Museum in Vienna, and some of Mednyánszky's works can still be found there today. His works from the wartime include "Head of a Soldier", "Wounded Soldier", "Soldier's Burial" and "Soldiers Hunting for Lice", which shows three young men scratching their whole bodies. Other pictures and sketches are in the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest and in the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava, much of it was destroyed during the Second World War. In 2004 some of his works were shown in New York at an exhibition about Hungarian painters. The exhibition was entitled "Everywhere a Foreigner and Yet Nowhere a Stranger", an entry in Mednyánszky's diary.
Mednyánszky devoted himself mainly to landscape paintings in the impressionist style. He was also taken with Symbolism and Art Nouveau. Despite his noble descent, his works often show poor, simple people at work, mainly from his home region. Folkloristic scenes from Upper Hungary are also typical for him, as well as nature scenes in all seasons, the weather and everyday situations. In the course of his life he came into contact with various social classes, aristocrats, great artists, the army and the peasant people. After the war Mednyánszky returned to Budapest, but after a few months he went to Vienna, where he died in 1919.
Ladislav Jozef Baltazár Eustach, Baron of Mednyánszky, was born in a small village in western Slovakia (then Hungary). His family was of noble descent and lived in a castle in northern Hungary. Mednyánszky could follow an extensive artistic career, as a child he received lessons from the Viennese landscape painter and watercolourist Thomas Ender, later he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He left the latter after the death of his professor, the French painter Isidore Pils, and worked independently.
In 1877 he exhibited one of his paintings for the first time, a landscape painting. From then on he travelled a lot through Europe, especially through Hungary and Slovakia. After the death of his mother he settled again in Northern Hungary and lived in seclusion for years. After that he travelled more and more, he probably spent most of his time in Paris. László Mednyánszky received the Prize of the Society of Fine Arts in Budapest, almost ten years later he had a solo exhibition in Paris at the Georges Petit Gallery - it will remain his only one. During the First World War he worked as a war painter and correspondent for the department of the imperial and royal war press headquarters of the Austro-Hungarian army and visited fronts in Serbia, Russia and South Tyrol. The art group was headed by Colonel Wilhelm John, who was also the director of the Army History Museum in Vienna, and some of Mednyánszky's works can still be found there today. His works from the wartime include "Head of a Soldier", "Wounded Soldier", "Soldier's Burial" and "Soldiers Hunting for Lice", which shows three young men scratching their whole bodies. Other pictures and sketches are in the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest and in the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava, much of it was destroyed during the Second World War. In 2004 some of his works were shown in New York at an exhibition about Hungarian painters. The exhibition was entitled "Everywhere a Foreigner and Yet Nowhere a Stranger", an entry in Mednyánszky's diary.
Mednyánszky devoted himself mainly to landscape paintings in the impressionist style. He was also taken with Symbolism and Art Nouveau. Despite his noble descent, his works often show poor, simple people at work, mainly from his home region. Folkloristic scenes from Upper Hungary are also typical for him, as well as nature scenes in all seasons, the weather and everyday situations. In the course of his life he came into contact with various social classes, aristocrats, great artists, the army and the peasant people. After the war Mednyánszky returned to Budapest, but after a few months he went to Vienna, where he died in 1919.