ON MIH�LY ZICHY



"Zichy, like Gustave Dor�, is an extraordinary genius, a portentum, to use the Latin expression, a 

vulcano perpetually exploding with talent." With these words The ophile Gautier, the renowned 

writer and critic, recognized Zichy's exceptional capabilities as early as 1858, on his journey to 

Russia. Gautier considered Zichy as "one of the most astonishing artists we have encountered since 

1830, that particular turning point in art." 

Mih�ly Zichy was born in 1827 in the village of Zala in western Hungary. The artist came from an 

impoverished branch of the well known family of counts. In Vienna he studied under Ferdinand 

Georg Waldmoller, one of the outstanding representatives of the Biedermeier style, who taught him 

to search for human depth as well as precise observation. Zichy's psychological acuity is already 

evident in his most significant painting of the Viennese period, the Life Boat of 1847, where he 

presents with dramatic force the tragedy of those adrift at sea. The picture shows the strong 

influence of French Romanticism, but Zichy was also affected by those Italian artists whose work 

he studied during his Italian tour of 1846. The autumn of the following year signalled a turning 

point in Zichy's life: he travelled to Saint Petersburg, where Waldmoller had recommended him for 

the position of art teacher to a relative of the Czar. Hewas later promoted to official court painter, 

and as such he made a number of drawings and water colours depicting various scenes from the life 

of the Czar and his court. Though owing more to labour than to inspiration, these works bring to 

life the festivities, hunts and orgies of the court, sometimes with a satirical sting. Court society, 

even the Czar himself, are often portrayed by Zichy as arrogant and vain. In his own interest and 

that of his children he had to undertake many petty commissions, like the fan painted for the 

Czarina or the deck of tarot cards designed for the Czar. Though even such menial works testify to 

Zichy's outstanding talent, he was continually aware of the curbs on his natural vocation. In 

addition he recognized that conditions in Russia were being propelled towards a crisis and he felt 

inclined to side with those who sought to instal democracy by way of a revolution. His position 

prevented him from raising his voice against the court and the Church. But his art, especially from 

the late sixties on, increasingly expressed his objection against national suppression and religious 

despotism, as is evident in such works as Jewish Martyrs, Auto-Da-Fi and Messiah. In the latter 

work Jesus appears as the Saviour driving out the fraudulent Christians along with the supercilious 

pope. The Messiah is presented as the liberator of a suppressed people. Not surprisingly the artist's 

standing at court gradually declined and it is more than likely that the court nobility spoke out 

against Zichy's revolutionary inclinations. It became increasingly clear that he had to leave Russia. 

Betwen 1874 and 1879 Zichy was working in Paris, free at last from the burden of official 

commissions. The large canvases the artist painted at this time reflect the overwhelming impact the 

French capital had made on him. Here it became possible for him to deal with the problems of his 

age. He was inspiredby the French, Russian, Polish, Czech and Belgian artists who became his 

friends. At the same time he presided over the Hungarian Society in Paris representing the interests 

of Hungarian workers and tradesmen there. In these years Zichy completed his most significant 

painting, the Weapons ofthe Delnon (The Triulnph of the Genius of Destruction ), a monumental 

work intended for the Paris World Fair of 1878. With romantic fervour Zichy portrayed the 

inhumanity of those who opposed progress, and spoke out against the murders instigated by heads 

of Church and State who were possessed by the spirit of destruction. The artist was referring to 

specific events : the battlescene in the foreground is from the Russian-Turkish War, and in the 

background Napoleon III lies defeated on the ground in front of the Emperor, Wilhelm of  Russia. 

The focal point of this demonic vision is the figure of the pope, enthroned on a heap of the bones of 

the victims, incapable of arresting the senseless slaughter. Originally, Zichy had painted into the 

background the symbolic figure of the French Republic with a halo around her head, but later, 

giving in to his critics, he replaced her with a faintly outlined figure of Christ. The composition met 

with great indignation because of its provocative message and was rejected by the World Fair. 

When it was exhibited in Budapest the picture was fiercely denounced by the critics ; the general 

public, however, was enthusiastic. Zichy went on to paint more monumental works, such as the 

Falling Stars of 1879, symbolizing the tragedy of failure, and his striking The Witching Hour of 

1880, which depicts skeletons rising from their graves at midnight. During this time Zichy was also 

illustrating literary works such as Mikhail Lermontov's Delnon and Goethe's Faust. But Zichy 

always felt out of place, unable to cope with the disappointments he had had to endure. He slowly 

came to realize that in Russia he was more respected than in his own country, and -following 

shorter sojoums in Nizza, Zala, Vienna, Venice and Tiflis (Tbilisi)- he decided to return to Saint 

Petersburg in 1883. He was to remain there until his death in1906. Yet he always considered 

himself a Hungarian at heart, and he continued to make illustrations for works by Hungarian poets 

like Imre Mad�ch's The Tragedy of man and the ballads of J�nos Arany. As he once said : "I 

consider it my patriotic duty to place my art in the service of our poetry and our poets. " Illustration 

must be the condensed visual expression of intellectual content, and this precisely was Zichy's 

strength. His drawing is expressive and concise, his shading neatly balances light and dark, and his 

conceptions are dramatic. He possessed the intuitive gift of revealing new levels of meaning and 

mood inherent in his literary text, while at the same time introducing his own outlook on life. He 

always selected to illustrate the particular scenes that he could best identify with. This is especially 

evident in his illustrations for Mad�ch's The Tragedy of Man. Zichy began working on this subject 

in 1885. In this year, Czar Alexander III granted him a release from his duties for two months. In 

the months to come he completed fifteen illustrations. Later he made five more, so that the second, 

special edition of The Tragedy published in Hungary by the Athenaeum Press in 1888 already 

contained all twenty illustrations. Zichy always made a number of sketches before embarking on 

his final version. His illustration for the Byzantine scene, for example, was preceded by six,and for 

the Prague scenes by eight preliminary sketches. He made no illustrations for the third scene, but 

for some others (Scenes Four, Seven, Twelve and Fifteen) he drew two and for Scene Six, the 

Roman Scene, he actually drew three. In 1886, when the first fifteen illustrations were exhibited in 

the Budapest Art Gallery, they were received favourably right away. In the words of a 

contemporary critic: "Few poets have been better interpreted than Mad�ch has by Zichy". In the 

1892 performance of The Tragedy of man in Vienna by the City Theatre of Hamburg the costume 

designs were based on Zichy's drawings. His originals were bought by the Hungarian National 

Museum through public funding in 1905, and are presently held in the Graphics Department of the 

Hungarian National Gallery. The series comprises a number of charcoal drawings on 790 x 503 mm 

sheets. Each is a unique reinterpretation of Mad�ch's concepts, each spurs the reader's imagination, 

each is an accompaniment to the literary work which it matches in artistic quality. The Tragedy was 

very close to Zichy's heart; he had always been inspired by the unusual, by phenomena which defy 

definition, bythe world of dreams and tales, by ages far removed in time. At some points his 

message diverges from the author's, alleviating the poem's mood of pessimism, and occasionally, as 

in the Roman and Byzantine scenes, he adds details not included in the text. He was always careful 

to represent a given period with historical precision and his illustrations testify to a profound 

knowledge of history, ethnography and art. Dramatic unity and fine proportions give them anairy 

quality : the eye is drawn to the details, the striking effects of light and dark, and the ingenious 

draughtsmanship. There is no trace of theatricality or hack-work, as a later critic said about some of 

the pieces. On the contrary, the illustrations have a genuine pathos and demonstrate the artist's 

empathy with his material.There have been passionate disputes concerning the status of Zichy's 

work in his own lifetime, and even today there is little agreement about the role and significance of 

his art. Gautier has already pointed out this artist's diversified character: "... a diverse nature ; 

sometimes we think we know him [...]; then suddenly we find ourselves facing a new work of his, 

and immediately everything we have just said is proven untenable." Criticism is primarily directed 

at his monumental oil paintings, their harsh shapes and bland colouring: he is accused of drawing 

even when he was painting. There may indeed be some validity in the charge that Zichy's idealism 

is often too abstract and his works too theatrical, but critics are unanimous in praise of his 

drawings, particularly his illustrations to works by Lermontov, Pushkin, Gogol, Goethe, Mad�ch, 

Arany and others : these are considered outstanding and unique. He was clearly influenced by 

Hogarth, whom he greatly respected, and he possessed a fine collection of his engravings. His other 

influences included, for example, Goya, the French Romantics, the Belgian Wiertz. He was 

however able to assimilate them in a style and idiom that is recognizably his own, one which still 

awaits proper definition.



J�nos FALUS