Page 9 - Békéscsaba 2022

Mihály Munkácsy
Mihály Munkácsy is one of the best-known and most re-
spected painters of our country and our town; he lived and
worked in Békéscsaba for many years. A square, a street, a Békéscsaba
museum, and even a bridge, were named aft er him.
Munkácsy was 8 years old when he moved to the house
happy moments in the house on Gyulai Street, which the town of
of his uncle, István Reök, in Békéscsaba. He spent many
houses the Munkácsy Memorial House today.
and he learned his first profession after having overcome Munkácsy
Later, his uncle made the boy a carpenter’s apprentice,

many diffi culties. The street where the workshop was lo-

cated is called Mihály Munkácsy Street now. He had the
first glimpse of his love, Ilonka Bartóki, on the banks of the

Élővíz (Live Water) Canal, near today’s Munkácsy Brid-
ge. At the age of 16, he began to study painting. He loved
to depict the people around him, the familiar faces, and
even the outlaws, in his paintings. He soon started off on
the bumpy road that led him to many other towns and
countries, enabling him to achieve world fame as one of
the greatest painters.

Munkácsy Memorial House

The Memorial House of Békéscsaba’s great painter was
opened in 1994, on the 150th anniversary of Mihály
Munkácsy’s birth. In the beautiful mansion, built in the
1840s, 21 original Munkácsy paintings reflect the master’s

most creative periods.

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