Ladislav
Medňanský — Scything and Harvesting

Ladislav Medňanský (Mednyanszky)
April 23, 1852, Beckov – April 17, 1919, Vienna.

The artist was born to this world prematurely and of weak health. He was never able to perform a physically demanding work in his life. At the age of four, he started spending every summer at the Szirmay family manor in Strážky where his family would later move. An important moment in the artist’s life was him meeting the painter and printmaker Thomas Ender from Vienna who would then tutor him (1854 – 1960). His medical condition made it very difficult for him to graduate high school, which he finally managed in 1872 in Miskolc. Later in October, he started attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. After the epidemic of cholera in Munich, he never returned to the academy and started attending École des Beaux Artes in Paris in the autumn 1874. In 1875, Medňanský would travel a lot with his family in the vicinity of the French metropole. In the spring 1875, young Medňanský refused to continue with his studies at the academy and left for Barbizon where he would meet László Paál, Karl Bodmer, Odilon Redon and others. In Paris, he would visit Mihály Munkácsy. He exhibited his images for the first time in 1875 at a winter stadium. He spent the following summer in Strážky for the first time in six years. He would travel a lot across eastern Slovakia and then returned to Paris. He also travelled across Italy and returned regularly to his studio in Strážky. He was always very engaged and helpful during natural disasters (1878 – 1879), e.g. he would assist as a rescue worker during the flooding of Szeged. He later painted in Hungarian beech forests and met Pál Szinyei Merse in the region of Šariš. He suffered from inflammation of the joints which resulted in a long-term spa treatments in Trenčianske Teplice and Budapest. It was at this time when he met the talented Nándor (Ferdinand) Katona, who would later become his student. After the rehabilitation, he travelled to Rome and later also to Capri. Then he settled down in Vienna, from where he would regularly visit Beckov, Budapest and other places. A good friend of his was Lajos Deák-Ébner and also the Vienna painter Wilhelm Bernatzik who would travel across the region of Zemplín with him.

Another important moment in the artist’s life was when he met Bálint Kurdi (the Bunny) who would become Medňanský’s model – at the time, Bálint was a barracks soldier. His favourite companions included Jani Dinda, a coachman from Strážky and Blažej Ladeczky. After his mother’s passing, the painter moved to Budapest in 1884, but would return home regularly. He met many important people in Budapest. This was Medňanský’s peak period, he paints, exhibits, travels home. Another important person in his life was Zsigmond Justh. In the late 1880s, he returned to France where he discovered the theosophic teaching and Buddhism. His impressionistic paintings from the first half of the 1890s were created during various stays in France. In the early 1890s, he suffered from depressions. Once they were overcome, he spent a lot of time in Strážky and Budapest. In 1895, Medňanský experienced his father’s passing – he created numerous mystical studies at this time. He spent the following years travelling across the Balkan region and France. In 1897, he survived another wave of depressions. He held an exhibition of 60 paintings in Paris which was very successful. In 1898, his image Mountain Region received the Grand Golden State Award. The painter was in debt and his finances were managed by the Singer company as he did not know how to handle money. At the turn of the centuries, while he was still living in Budapest, he would be fighting his weak health, regularly coming to Slovakia to paint and visiting Vienna. In 1898, he started regularly participating at exhibitions at Mücsarnok. He spent the May and July 1901 travelling across Dalmatia and Montenegro. He also spent a lot of time in Hungary, painted around Buda, Vác and Balaton. He also visited Transylvania. Each year, usually in the summer, he would come back to Slovakia even though he was permanently settled in Vienna. Once again he manifested his sense for solidarity when the war started and he voluntarily enlisted with the army in 1914 where he worked as a frontline artist. He started at the Russian front and moved to the Italian one in 1916. After an injury, he spent some time around Villach and regularly visited Vienna, Budapest, Beckov and Strážky and returned back to Vienna before the end of the year. In the autumn, he left for the Italian front again. He ended up in hospital with a serious case of a kidney disease which concluded his days of a frontline artist. From late 1917, he worked broken and in poor conditions in Vienna. In 1918, he left for Strážky where he would spend the last summer. In 1919, the military command asked him to return to Vienna. He has received numerous awards, like the one in 1888 at Mücsarnok in Budapest or in 1914 also in Budapest. His work is spread across various public and private collections in Europe (e.g. the Hungarian National Gallery, Slovak National Gallery). We still do not know what happened to his works created in Paris and Barbizon. In 2002 and 2004, the Hungarian National Gallery and Slovak National Gallery prepared a large monographic exhibition and publication in honour of the artist.⁴