The Wrestlers.

Title

The Wrestlers.

Description

Decorative view depicts a wrestling fight, after the original paining of Michael Munkácsy.

dated 1878

Artist

Munkácsy (1844-1900)

Mihály von Munkácsy, actually Michael Lieb (1844 - 1900), was a Hungarian realist painter and fresco artist who was known throughout Europe in the 19th century. Munkácsy created numerous small-format landscapes in the style of the Barbizon school. These, like his genre scenes, his still lifes and portraits, as well as the pathetic history pictures and religious representations, are characterized by a secure and lively brushwork and warm and bright colors (colorism). Munkácsy's early works were socially committed and dedicated to the Hungarian struggle for freedom. With the move to Paris (1872) he turned to salon art. His marriage to the wealthy Baroness de Marches (1874) began a life for him as a “painter prince”. It was only in his later works that he found his way back to social and political engagement. His work had a great influence on Hungarian painting. Many of his works are now in the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest, in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich (visit to a woman who has recently given birth) but also in other museums in Europe and the USA. The ceiling painting in the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna also comes from him.

Historical Description

Originating as a popular form of entertainment in 19th-century Europe and later as a sideshow exhibition in North American traveling carnivals and vaudeville halls, professional wrestling grew into a standalone genre of entertainment with many diverse variations in cultures around the globe, and is now a billion dollar entertainment industry.