Mikhail Zichy (1827-1906)

Mikhail Zichy - draftsman and painter (1827 - 1906), a native of Hungary. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Having earned a reputation paintings exhibited in Vienna: "Get well girl praying before the image of Our Lady," "The Dying Knight," "zakolachivaniya coffin child" (in the Budapest Museum), was invited to the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, a teacher of drawing and painting to her daughter, the Grand Duchess Catherine Maslova.

Soon he had to give up teaching and sniskivat livelihood manufacturing drawings for sales and svetopisnyh retouching portraits. Improvement of their situation must Zichy Theophile Gautier, who visited St. Petersburg in 1858.

In the book "Voyage en Russie" Gauthier Zichy devoted an entire chapter, thus greatly raised its reputation in the eyes of the Russian public.

From 1859 to 1873, Zichy was a court painter, and at that time played a lot of drawings depicting various incidents of court life, the imperial hunting scenes, cartoons, people close to the court (located mostly in imperial palaces and albums of the highest personages). They played in watercolors main episodes coronation of Emperor Alexander II, for which he received the title of Academician.

In 1874, Zichy left for Paris, where he painted "The Austrian Empress Elizabeth lays a wreath on the coffin Deak," and put the pictures in the illustrated papers. Since 1880 Zichy again in Russia, and works as a painter-chronicler of ceremonies, entertainment and family events of the highest court. From his works are given more paintings, "The Messiah and Luther in the Wartburg," "Man between intelligence and stupidity," "Jewish Martyrs," "Florentine orgy", "Death of King Candaule", "dust thou art, and into the ground return", "Tamara and the Demon "(a poem by Lermontov)" Pawnbroker "," Bernard Palissy, "" Last Minutes Werther, "" project theater curtain for Anichkovskogo palace. " The works are in the museum Zichy Alexander III and the Tretyakov Gallery.