New purchase in the permanent exhibition of the Liszt Museum

The collection of the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum has been enriched this autumn with a new collection of special significance for the Liszt Academy, which was unveiled on 13 November at a ceremony to commemorate the birth of the Academy. The ceremony was opened by Dr Andrea Vigh, Rector of the Liszt Academy of Music, and the painting itself was presented by Zsuzsanna Domokos, Director of the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum and Research Centre. The large-scale charcoal drawing was made by Alajos Landau (1833-1884) and was most probably painted immediately after the Hungarian Parliament voted on 8 February 1873, on the proposal of Albert Apponyi and with the support of Ferenc Deák, to establish the Academy of Music under the presidency of Ferenc Liszt. Alajos Landau trained as a painter and graphic artist and then turned to photography. From 1859 to 1872 he lived in Szeged, where he ran the city's first permanent photographic studio. In September 1872 he was appointed a drawing teacher at the newly established District VI School of Fine Arts in Pest, and in 1876 he was appointed a private lecturer at the University of Fine Arts.

The portrait of Liszt is unique in that it is dated and signed by the composer, which can be seen in the lower right-hand corner of the picture: March 1873. The drawing was originally sold in an antique shop in Vienna, and was brought to our attention by Péter Szmolics. The Liszt Museum Foundation, thanks to donations from Péter Horváth and Tibor Szász, bought it, and with the help of the Collegium Hungaricum and the Hungarian Embassy in Vienna, it has been returned home and from this week it has been decorating the study bedroom of Liszt's home in Budapest, above a bookcase.