The Washington weekly post., 1900-06-05
DEATH OF FAMOUS PAINTER,
Tragic Life Of Nunkaesy, Who Passed
Away in Mad House
From the San Francisco Call

I Fiptu tHr san FIdHttScO all.
Ii was nearly all fight from the very ne
ginning, but It is over now. Poor Nun
| kacSy,
There was so little but tragedy in tha
haif-starved life Of his, He was hungry
for SO many years; hungry for bread AM
hungry for art. Most of the happiness
was what he gave to others.
The telegram of May was brief 1
was dated Bonn" and this was tn,
amount Of Il:
"Munkacsy. the celebrated painter. died
In an asylum here to-day He will b.
buried at Budapest"
II IS more than three years since hc
was taken 10 the Bonn asylum. He was
violently insane at the time.
When fame and all the comfort that
follows in its wake had been achieved al
last he had only few years in which Ia
enjoy them. Then came a stroke OF
paralysis which caused the brush 10 be
iald aside, and in despair he brOoded day
atter day until the tired brain gave way.
lie mad only just reached middle age.
man OF MS years were passed without
recognition He was nearly twenty-five
When The Last Day of a Condemned
PRISONER made people stop and look A
came q few years Of Paris life i'm :he
studios which he has painted for ;he
darkness.
Perhaps it was all because of that sad
little boy life OF his He was moi cutie
seven years old when he was left an or
phan- That was back in Hungary-near
MunkacS was where he was born 81 he
went 10 live with his uncle, and because
ne ala not Ike the uncle he moved across
the road to his aunt, and because the
aunt was still less Congenial he moved
back to the uncle again. So between de-
mails and thrashinGs he spent some long
sorry years-for little boy years are the
longest In life If they are sorry. He was
apprenticed 10 a carpenter and he cher
iShed smooth bits OF wood left from
planks and carried them home to make
sketches on. He always liked best TO
make people, and perhaps he painted the
stern uncle and the snappish aunt and
vented some of his feelings In that way
But likely enough ne did not make bitter
caricatures of them. after ali. for he was
big OF. heart, and even when he was so
young ne may have known that they
meant well enough, but were simply some
or the blundertng people of this world
who do not understand
At any rate, he chose to get away from
them as soon as he could. From accounts
one would judge that she was the kind
of aunt who had wood TO be chopped the
instant Michael slipped away TO his dim
little room for a few minutes glo4t over
some cOlOred print that he had saved pen
MES 10 buy: Her high-pitched voice
shrills through our ina ginatiOn In It's cry
of Michael, Michael Leb! Are you
wasting tine again? When there's wata.
TO be carried and the COW to be fed
you little troubler We can
guess that she said this and We can guess
why he started out with Just five fOr:ns
Jingllng IN his trousers pocket. Any ad-
venture was better than TO live with the
wood and the water and the Cow shrisk-
ing through his ears.
But he was very young and very mex
pertenced, and the world Is sucn a big
place. He went here ani there and tried
to make living of ii and barely sue
and proudly claimed that he was a good
Dne. But when ones heart keeps crying
put TO make pictures, pictures, pictures
The gloom Of the world crept into his |
work and was so dark that the sun could /
lot shine IN II. The Last Day OF a Con-
lemned Prisoner" is all tragedy, cruel |
tragedy, such IS only master could have
conceived. The pure white ray Of light |
hat a wondering little child casts upon /
he picture serves only 10 deepen the 1
darkness OF the doomed man
Munkscsy was consistently a realist. !
There Lad been no chance for much out
iide of so-called realism in his life, ana 1
le painted what he knew. The bright side .
II realism Is just as true. but ne did not .
ind it.
There was one phase OF the man that 1
lis friends knew when he was o student I
L Dusseldorf. II might have passed for 1
nerriment or JOY even TO the casual OBJ 4
eryer. But II was q mad defiant kind
# joy: II led him 10 spend money In a
eckless way and 10 be craZily gay at stu
lent gatherings I'm a manner which said
L have been c,eated out OF happiness all !
hese years. and now / viii get even with
lie at last"
But somehow life seemed always 70
ave the upper hand. The years or pros
erity granted made the end more fear
al by contrast II looks a. II she meant
l. As II size let him taste happiness
hen snatched Il away and laughed and
aid, Il let you feel all the Joy Of paint
lg 80 you might suffer the more when
our hand lost It's power"
Whether II pdId-he knew.