Zichy Mihály

Zichy  Mihály (1827-1906), Hungarian painter and graphic artist. Academician of the Petersburg Academy of Art (1847), painter at the Russian Imperial Court (as of 1859). Born in the village of Zala, Hungary. He studied at the Budapest University. From 1842 onwards he attended the school of Italian painter J. Marastoni in Pest; As of 1843 he mastered painting under F.-G. Waldmüller in Vienna. In autumn of 1843 M. Zichy arrived in Tbilisi. As Georgian newspaper ‘Droeba’ (1881, No.220) wrote, he intended to study the types of Georgians and Georgian nature for his upcoming illustrations of Demon, the poem by M. Lermontov. M. Zichy became friends with Georgian intellectuals and following the advice of Georgian men of arts, he undertook staging of so called ‘Picture Pages’ from The Man In the Panther’s Skin by Sh. Rustaveli. For every Picture Page (11 pictures in all) Zichy made preliminary storyline sketches and outlines of protagonists (they are preserved at the National Art Museum of Georgia). On February 6, 1882, at the Summer Theater of Tbilisi, M. Zichy presented the picture-page show based on Rustaveli’s The Man in the Panther’s Skin. The same live-picture show was performed in Kutaisi in May of 1882. In 1884 Georgian public figure Iona Meunargia forwarded his full French-language translation of The Man in the Panther’s skin to M. Zichy, who was residing in Petersburg. I. Meunargia’s endeavor was connected with the fact that the Literary Society of Tbilisi had placed an order with V. Zichy on drawing illustrations for edition (1888) of Sh. Rustaveli’s epic poem. The Literary Society had ordered 14 sketches; however, M. Zichy sent them 34 sketches. The Publishing Commission selected 27 drafts (they are preserved at the National Museum of Georgia). M. Zichy fulfilled the order for the illustrations free of charge. In spring of 1888 Georgian public received a luxurious, so – called ‘Kartvelishvil edition’ of The Man in the Panther’s Skin, illustrated by M. Zichy.

In September – October of 1888 M. Zichy visited Georgia for the second time and painted several new pictures on Georgian subject matter.

M. Zichy died in Petersburg. He was buried at the Kerepesi cemetery in Budapest.