111547

Madame Miksa Falk, nėe Klementine Schindler 1901

Half-length slightly to the right, full face to the viewer, wearing a white blouse with a brooch at her neck covered by a dark cape with elaborate lace collar and pearl earrings

Oil on canvas, 92 x 72 cm (36 ¼ x 28 ⅓ in.)

Inscribed lower right: László F. E. / Bpest 1901

Budapesti Történeti Múzeum (Budapest History Museum)

Inventory no: KM.76.67

In 1902 the present picture and that of her husband, Miksa Falk [111093] were exhibited in Artwork from Private Collections at the Műcsarnok in Budapest. Gábor de Térey [11881], Chief Curator at the Museum of Fine Arts and a very close friend of the artist wrote about the present picture approvingly: “Your portrait of Frau Falk works excellently.”^[1] It is possible that they were painted as pendant portraits; however, the dimensions of the husband’s portrait are unknown as the picture is untraced.

Klementina Barbara Schindler was born in Vienna in 1836 or 1837. On 7 September 1854, in the Paulanerkirche in Vienna, she married the journalist Miksa Falk as his second wife. There were eight children of the marriage, three sons, Frigyes (born 1860), Ede (born 1864), Ernő (born 1870), and five daughters, Klementina, Sarolta, Aurélia, Ottília and Leopoldina.

They enjoyed a long and happy marriage: Count Gyula Andrássy said of her, probably on the occasion of their Golden Wedding, “For Falk you are a Gift of God, a true blessing. Were you not at his side – he would have drowned long ago in some pot of ink.”^[2] 

On 14 June 1908 Klementina died suddenly of a stroke while taking a cure with her daughter at Karlsbad. Her husband survived her by only four months.

PROVENANCE:

Madame László Kovács, descendant of the sitter;

Purchased by the Municipal Gallery,^[3] Budapest, 1976;

EXHIBITED:

•Műcsarnok, Budapest, Modern Paintings from Private Collections, 1902

•Csíki Székely Múzeum (Szekler Museum of Ciuc), Miercurea Ciuc, Romania, July 2010, Remekművek a 19. századi magyar festészetből – Barabás, Munkácsy, Szinyei és kortársaik (Masterpieces from the 19th Century Hungarian Painting – Barabás, Munkácsy, Szinyei and their Contemporaries)

•Új Budapest Galéria (New Budapest Gallery), A Mecénás Főváros - A Fővárosi Képtár (Budapest, Patron City of Arts – The Municipal Gallery), 4 April – 31 August 2014

LITERATURE:

•Széhelyhon, ‘Barabás, Munkácsy, Szinyei és kortársaik tárlatvezetés’ (Barabás, Munkácsy, Szinyei and their contemporaries guided tour), Romania, 6 July 2010

•Szabadság, ‘Szemelvények a Barabás, Munkácsy, Szinyei és kortársaik című tárlat alkotóinak életművéből’ (Excerpts from the Oeuvre of Artists of the Barabás, Munkácsy, Szinyei and their Contemporaries Exhibition), Romania, 10 July 2010, ill.

•DLA066-0105, letter from Gábor Térey to de László, 2 October 1902

BS 2020