The Hungarian painter and graphic artist Mihaly Zichy (1827-1906), who “served” in Russia for more than 50 years, is called “the artist of the four Russian Emperors”. The fate of Mihaly Zichy, by a matter of chance, turned out to be closely connected with Russian Empire. In January 1848, Zichy came to St. Petersburg. A young talented painter, a born drawing artist, an inquisitive person, interested in all types of fine arts, he rather quickly became famous in the aristocratic community of St. Petersburg.

On April 30, 1858, Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy, as he had long been called in St. Petersburg, was elevated to the rank of Academician of watercolor painting. A year later, on May 30, 1859, Emperor Alexander II "granted Academician Mihaly Zichy the title of the painter of His Imperial Majesty, and the artist was attached to the Imperial Hermitage". On February 10, 1860, another order from the Tsar followed - to provide Zichy for his workshop a room on the bottom floor of the New Hermitage. In 1863, “The Emperor awarded Academician Zichy for the execution of eight large drawings for chromolithographs and ten engravings for the text that was written for description of The Sacred Crowning of Their Majesties ” publication as the Holder of the Order of St. Stanislaus of the 2nd class.

Events of the nationwide scale - the visits of the German Emperor, the Persian shah, receptions of ambassadorial deputations, scenes of the Heir betrothal and wedding, the Grand Duke (the future Nicholas II) birth and baptism, military parades, as well as the Royal family and their persons entertainments - performances, fancy-dress balls, charade parties and especially the royal hunts with their elaborated ritual of actions for every participant - all above mentioned was the plot of the scrupulous painting by the artist.

M. Zichy rarely worked with oil paints. To capture the events quickly, more fluid graphic arts’ language was required. A brilliant memory helped the artist to recollect what his hand did not have time to capture. With flexible, sometimes brittle, small strokes, sometimes with smooth lines of a pencil, the artist conveyed the complicated turnings of figures in motion and postures - from dignified to caricature ones. Considerable place in Zichy creative work (besides his work at the Imperial Court), especially during the last decades of his life in St. Petersburg, was occupied by illustrations and easel graphic sheets. Some of them were associated with his peculiar interpretation of literary works; others were born by the artist's inclination to historical and allegorical concepts; at times, both were combined together.

For the birthday of the talented Hungarian painter and graphic artist, we have prepared a photo album, which features some of the works by Mihaly Zichy, stored in the section “Graphics” of the museum Collection repository.

Literature:
A.S. Kantor-Gukovskaya - At the Court of Russian Emperors. Works by Mihaly Zichy from the Hermitage collections. LibKing.Ru