Mme Parlaghy’s Art: She has Painted Portraits of Many European Royalties

It Happened on
November 08, 1899

The Kansas City Times, Kansas City, MO

In today’s article, we learn that Vilma Parlaghy’s teachers were Franz Lenbach,  Makart and Hans Canon.

Her first publicly exhibited canvas was a portrait of her mother, Baroness Zollendorf, at a Paris Salon in 1892 (Gold Medal).

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(From the New York Herald)

Mme. Vilma Parlaghy, who recently arrived here from Berlin, is a portraitist with the distinction of having painted many members of European royalty and nobility. She is Hungarian, the daughter of Baron and Baroness Zollern.

Among Mme. Parlaghy’s mentors were Lenbach and Makart, but she claims her best instructors were the works of Rembrandt and Hals, which she studied in Kassel, Haarlem, Amsterdam, and The Hague, as well as the famous paintings in Rome, Florence, and Paris, where she engaged in a profound study of these masterpieces.

“Mme. Parlaghy executed her portraits of the Emperor with such skill and imagination that he commissioned several more, each featuring himself in a different costume.”

Her first publicly exhibited canvas was shown at the Paris Salon, where she gained significant recognition. She was awarded both a gold medal and an election as an officer of the Academy. Following this success, she sent a piece to the Berlin Academy, which attracted so much attention that it led to a commission to paint portraits of the German Emperor and Empress.

Mme. Parlaghy executed these commissions so skillfully that the Emperor commissioned several more portraits of himself in various costumes. She went on to paint numerous other prominent figures, including Count and Countess Eulenberg, the Duke and Duchess of Oldenburg, Princess Schaumburg-Lippe, Countess Arnim-Muskau, and Field Marshal von Moltke, whom she portrayed in full uniform. This portrait was completed a year before Kossuth’s death.

She also painted a portrait of Bismarck, creating a notable likeness of him while he was in Turin. At the Austrian court, Mme. Parlaghy was equally successful, receiving a commission from Emperor Francis Joseph. Baroness Rothschild and Baroness von Rath also sat for her. Additionally, she painted the King and Queen of Württemberg, who presented her with a beautiful pearl necklace as a souvenir.

“She claims her best instructors in art were not her teachers but the Rembrandt and Hals canvases in Kassel, Haarlem, Amsterdam, and The Hague, along with the masterpieces of Rome, Florence, and Paris, which she studied with profound dedication.”

Members of both the English and Italian royal families have also sat for Mme. Parlaghy. She maintains a beautiful studio on Unter den Linden in Berlin, filled with curios and souvenirs. Mme. Parlaghy is passionately fond of horses and has a fine stable of Hungarian thoroughbreds.

Original Article

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