Mihai Zichy (Mihály Alexándrovich Zichy) (1827-1906) was a Hungarian painter who lived in Russia for a long time and was very well regarded there. Zichy's creative legacy is very diverse, in addition to boring formal portraits, he had more than frivolous watercolors, excellent genre paintings and magnificent illustrations. We will talk about the life of the artist and his artwork in this article.
A performance at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater on the occasion of the holy coronation of Emperor Alexander II
Zichy, a nobleman by birth, received his artistic education at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where his teacher was Ferdinand Waldmüller.
Mihai Zichy Hungarian. Zichy Mihály
Russian princess Elena Pavlovna appreciated Waldmüller's work and decided to invite him to teach her young daughter. But Waldmüller did not want to work as a governess and home teacher and sent Zichy instead. But even he quickly got bored with teaching painting not too gifted girl, especially since Zichy already had a dozen good paintings and naturally considered himself a capable artist. So he soon gave up his position.
Kiss
He didn't want to return to Hungary, so he got a job as a retoucher in a St. Petersburg photo studio, painted portraits to order, and at the same time worked part-time painting very immodest watercolors, which were produced underground and sold unofficially. By and large it was real pornography, but the young artist, in need of money, took on such artwork as well.
A passion that flared up
But the real money paid illustrators, good in those years in St. Petersburg was a real heyday of magazine graphics. Magazines were published, almost entirely of lithographs, because they were understandable even to illiterate people. Zichy decided to try his hand at illustrating Russian classics. But to make really high-quality drawings without understanding the peculiarities of life in Russia and the Russian soul he considered impossible. Therefore, he diligently studied Russian literature and culture, tried to understand the way of thinking and psychology of Russians. This was radically different from other foreign artists, who came to Russia for easy money, painted uncomplicated ceremonial portraits and with a full pile of money departed back home.
Illustration for the story Taras Bulba by Gogol
However, in 1859, Zichy still received a lucrative and honorable position as a court painter. One could forget about material problems.
But it was necessary to carefully study the life and amusements of the imperial court. Alexander II always invited Zichy to the hunt, and on the impressions he saw, the artist made a series of magnificent drawings, which were included in the epochal publication “Imperial Hunting in Russia”.
A ball in the Concert Hall of the Winter Palace during the official visit of Shah Nasir-ud-Din in May 1873
Tired of monotonous and pompous ceremonial portraits Zichy found an outlet in the depiction of nudes, paintings on mystical and fantastic themes. True, in Russia he had to carefully veil his interest in nudes, saying that they were just sketches for the next academic masterpiece on an antique theme, and carefully selecting titles that would meet all the norms of decency.
Left: Shooting Star. Right: Autodafe
Zichy willingly befriended Russian artists, was a guest at the famous “Thursdays” of Kramskoi. This allowed him to feel the real, not court life and to talk enough with knowledgeable people about art.
Once Zichy did not please the august family. He had to leave the nourishing position of court painter and move to Paris. There he wrote oil paintings, which did not gain much popularity, although they were executed at a very good level. But book illustration steadily brought a good income.
An old bachelor
Five years later, Zichy returned to Russia, where he lived until his death, gaining fame as a remarkable artist and a foreigner who was able to understand the Russian soul.
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