679 - Ladislav Mednyanszky, ‘Les v zimě’ (Forest in Winter), mixed media, 1907, in original frame

Ladislav Mednyanszky, ‘Les v zimě’ (Forest in Winter), mixed media, 1907, in original frame László Baron Mednyánszky of Mednye and Medgyes (also Ladislaus Josephus Balthasar Eustachius Mednyánszky), 1852 Bezkow - 1919 Vienna, a prominent Slovak-Hungarian painter and philosopher, shown here: “Les v zimě” (Forest in Winter), oil and mixed media, 32 x 28 cm, signed and dated 1907 on the right, adhesive label on the reverse, Bratislava 1981, in its original frame About the artist: Ladislav Mednyanszky studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1872-73 and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris until 1875. He painted for a time in the Montmartre district, exhibited his first landscape in Munich in 1877, and returned to his homeland after 1877. In 1888, he was awarded the prize of the Society for Fine Arts in Budapest. From 1889 to 1892 he lived mainly in Paris again, but continued to return regularly to his homeland until around 1900. In 1897 he held a successful solo exhibition at the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. From 1905 to 1911 he lived in Budapest and subsequently in Vienna. During the First World War, he served as a war artist with the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal War Press Quarters, where he worked on the Serbian, Russian and Italian fronts. Some works from this creative period are now housed in the Vienna Museum of Military History. In 1918, he returned to his hometown to recover from a war wound, then lived in Budapest and died shortly afterwards in Vienna. Ladislav Mednyanszky was influenced by the Impressionists; he dedicated his art to society’s outcasts and unspoilt nature. His works are now housed as national cultural treasures in the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava and the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest.