coal on paper, 34 x 34 cm, signed: M de Munkácsy

Estimate: 1.200.000 - 2.000.000 HUF

A rare and intimate signed study by Munkácsy, created as a preparatory sketch for the artist’s famous masterpiece The Condemned (1869–1872). This work brought Munkácsy international recognition and marked a decisive turning point in his career. The drawing was executed with the emotional intensity and psychological depth characteristic of Munkácsy’s early realist period; it conveys the drama and human compassion that would also define his later monumental compositions.

The study comes from the famous Album Amicorum of Louise Hochon (1851-1929). A libro amicorum or album amicorum is a friendship album in which the owner’s acquaintances, as well as fellow artists or writers, contributed personal dedications, drawings, poems, or small artworks – thereby creating a unique document of the social and artistic life of its time. Hochon was the daughter of the architect Hector-Martin Lefuel, who served as chief architect of the Louvre during the reign of Napoleon III. Louise Hochon’s Parisian salon attracted many prominent artists, writers, and composers of the Belle Époque—including Léon Bonnat, Gabriel Ferrier, Jules Massenet, and Munkácsy himself. The album, filled with contributions and works by her friends and fellow artists, became a unique visual document of the artistic life of the period.”