The history of every nation is also reflected in its works of art. This is especially true for a people with such a difficult history as the Magyars. Gyula Benczúr was one of those artists who dedicated himself to taking snapshots of Hungary's past.
Born in 1844 in Nyíregiháza in the far east of the country, he moved with his family at the age of four to Kosice in present-day Slovakia, at that time still part of the Kingdom of Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian Empire as "Upper Hungary". Dual Monarchy. In Kosice he learned to draw from the Austrian history painter Franz Geyling, and from 1861 he studied painting at the Royal Bavarian Academy in Munich, for example with Karl Theodor von Piloty.
In 1870 a national competition for historical paintings was held in Hungary, Benczúr made his debut with the "Baptism of Stefan the Saint" (in original: Vajk megkeresztelése) and won at the first attempt. He returned to Munich, took on commissions from King Ludwig II and was a member of the "revolutionary" artists' association Allotria, whose best-known member today may well have been the caricaturist Wilhelm Busch. Benczúr certainly did not illustrate his "Max and Moritz" and companions, but he did illustrate some works by Friedrich Schiller. Some frescoes in the Munich City Hall and in the Maximilianeum - since 1949 seat of the Bavarian Parliament - are a co-production of Benczúr and Piloty.
Benczúr lived on Lake Starnberg until 1888, before returning to his home country to take up a professorship at the "School of Painting".
Benczúr painted portraits of kings, aristocrats and important contemporaries, but his speciality remained large-format "historical paintings" with plays of light and shadow. These include "The Farewell of Laszlo Hunyadi" (a Hungarian warrior betrayed and beheaded by his own king in 1457), "The Arrest of Francis II Rakoczy" (after the failed uprising of Hungarian nobles against the Habsburg dynasty in 1701) and the "Siege of Buda" (which ended in 1686 with the expulsion of the Ottomans from Hungary's later capital Budapest). In addition to antique (such as the death of Cleopatra or the death of Narcissus) or biblical themes ("Adam and Eve"), he also painted self-portraits, group pictures of his family or nature pieces such as the "Reader in the Forest".
Gyula Benczúr died in 1920 at the age of 76 in Szécsény. The Hungarian master of history painting experienced for himself Hungary's independence from the Dual Monarchy, with simultaneous degradation to a rump state through the loss of large areas to the new neighbouring states of Romania and Czechoslovakia, and the resulting political struggles for direction in the Republic.
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.jpg "Narcissus by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Louis XV and Madame Dubarry by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elizabeth in Budapest, 8th July 1896 (detail) by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Death of Ladislaus IV of Hungary by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Study for the Painting Thousand Years of Homage by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Study by Gyula Benczúr")
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_Benczur_-_The_Baptim_of_Saint_Stephen_(c970-1038)_Saint_and_First_king_of_Hungary_-_baptis_-_(MeisterDrucke-932812).jpg "The Baptism of Saint Stephen, Saint and First King of Hungary - Baptised by Saint Adalbert of Prague After a Work by Gyula Benczur by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Portrait of Netusne Stark by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Portrait Hedwige de Ligne, 1900 by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Portrait of Count Gyula Karolyi by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Portrait of Vilmos Benczur, Father of the Artist by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Bacchante by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Laszlo Hunyadi")
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.jpg "Portrait of Empress Elisabeth by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Elizabeth signing Mary")
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 and Empress Elizabeth (18 - (MeisterDrucke-283458).jpg "Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elizabeth in Budapest, 8th July 1896 by Gyula Benczúr")
 and Empress Elizabeth (18 - (MeisterDrucke-283458).jpg)
_Benczur_-_The_baptism_of_Stephen_I_of_Hungary_(engraving)_-_(MeisterDrucke-1054561).jpg "The baptism of Stephen I of Hungary by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Adoration of the Three Kings by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "The Shooted Arrow Cupid by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Woman Reading in a Forest by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Hypnos Dream by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Noli Me Tangere by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Count Stephen Tisza by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Bacchant by Gyula Benczúr")
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_Benczur_-_The_Baptism_of_Vajk_(oil_on_canvas)_-_(MeisterDrucke-921859).jpg "The Baptism of Vajk by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "The Baptism of Vajk by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Portrait of Mrs. Vilmos Benczur, Mother of the Artist by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Portrait of Jeno Karatsonyi by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Patroness of Hungary by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Madonna with the Child Jesus by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "A Wreath to Mama by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Still Life by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Portrait of Countess Gyula Karolyi, née Geraldine Pálffy by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Wekerle Sándor by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "My Favourites by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Queen Erzsebet by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "My Children by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Portrait of Etelka Benczur by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "The Baptism of Vajk by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "The Maiden and Lover by Gyula Benczúr")
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_Benczur_-_Louis_XV_(1710-1774)_and_Madame_Du_Barry_(Jeanne_Becu_dit_de_Cantigny_or_de_Vaub_-_(MeisterDrucke-964285).jpg "Louis XV (1710-1774) and Madame Du Barry by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Woman Reading in a Forest by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Portrait of Karolyne Tutko by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Madonna with Rabbit by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "The Recapture of Buda Castle in 1686 by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Mary Stuart led to execution by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Cleopatra by Gyula Benczúr")
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.jpg "Little Girl with a Doll by Gyula Benczúr")
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