74. Winter Auction

An incredible discovery: this hitherto completely unknown masterpiece by Lajos Tihanyi has become part of the pantheon of Hungarian art. The painting titled Tájkép Margit híddal (Landscape with Margaret Bridge) was discovered after an absence of more than 100 years and will be on display to the public from 2 December. It is to be auctioned on 16 December at the winter auction of the Judit Virág Gallery.
The painting captures for posterity one of the most expensive and spectacular private palaces in Budapest’s history, the former villa of architect János Wagner, with the Danube and Margaret Bridge clearly visible in the distance. The villa surrounded the tomb of Gül Baba, a former dervish, or warrior monk, which is a Budapest landmark. Wagner’s villa was demolished in 1969, but Tihanyi viewed and painted it in all its glory, before the outbreak of the First World War.

After more than two decades, Lajos Gulácsy’s exceptional masterpiece, Lady Playing an Old Instrument, also known as the Hungarian Mona Lisa, is to be auctioned once more. This painting achieved a Hungarian record sale price of HUF 95 million at the Judit Virág Gallery auction in 2002. Long thought to be lost before it miraculously resurfaced, this masterpiece is one of Gulácsy’s few remaining large works in oil and one of the foremost Hungarian paintings.
Art collectors have been waiting for this moment for over 20 years: Lajos Gulácsy’s iconic masterpiece will be available once again. In 2002, the discovery of the oil painting Lady Playing an Old Instrument triggered huge excitement, as art historians believed that this masterpiece had been destroyed during World War II. In the summer of 1912, Gulácsy went on a tour of the Hungarian Great Plain with his paintings, and this is presumably when he sold Lady Playing an Old Instrument. After this, the art piece disappeared.
In 1960, art historians began to search for the painting, but since most of Lajos Gulácsy’s oeuvre was destroyed or scattered during World War II, they supposed that this painting had been destroyed as well. The painting was then brought to the gallery from Orosháza in 2002. The artwork is justifiably called the Hungarian Mona Lisa because of its symbolism and air of mystery. Gulácsy was receptive to music and saw sounds and colours as a unity. The figure of the woman playing the harp evokes an antique atmosphere, the lady is a creature both heavenly and earthly, floating between art and reality.

Other highlights of the auction include a masterpiece by Tibor Boromisza titled Satu Mare Winter Market; János Vaszary’s large-scale, brightly coloured landscape of Lake Tata painted in the 1910s; as well as masterpieces by László Mednyánszky, Béla Iványi Grünwald, Dezső Czigány and Hugó Scheiber.