1. Empress Maria Thereza, 1880.
(Town Museum in Subotica)
The painting was ordered by the town of Subotica, for the Council Room of the Old Townhall, on the centenary of Subotica as a Free Royal Town (1779). Thanks to the Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Croatia (Vienna, 1717 – Vienna, 1780), official name of the town is Maria-Theresiapolis till 1848. She was the only female monarch of the House of Habsburgs, she succeded in defending her throne with the help of Hungarian nobles. The Queen is in a Hungarian court dress on the painting.
2. Empress Elisabeth of Austria, 1875.
(Town Museum in Sombor)
Elisabeth (Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie von Wittelsbach, München, 1837 – Genf, 1898) became wife of Franz Joseph, the emperor of the Habsburg Empire as a Bavarian dutchess in 1854. She was held for the most beautiful woman of her age, she had modern views, sported, wrote poems and she supported Hungarian interests. She had a great role in the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867. On this painting, she is presented by the painter in her coronation dress as Queen of Hungary. The cult of Sisi remains powerful till nowadays.
3. Sava Tekelija, 1865.
(Gallery of Matica Srpska, Novi Sad)
Sava Tekelija-Popović (Arad, 1761 – Pešta) Hungarian nobleman of Serbian nationality, doctor of law, who created the Thökölyanum for Serbian students in Budapest, founded in 1838. His property was first in the hands of Matica Srpska, an institution founded in 1825 – of which he was the president till his death – from 1877 in the hands of the Orthodox Church in Budapest, and from 1900 in the hands of a separate Serbian board. He went to grammar school and studied in Budapest (1875), there he did his PhD, too. On the painting he is in a Hungarian court dress.
4. Than Mór - self-portrait
5. Franz Joseph, emperor of Austria, king of Hungary, 1875.
(Hungarian National Gallery, Historical Gallery of Portraits, Budapest)
Franz Joseph I. of Austria (Vienna 1830 – Vienna, 1916), emperor of Austria from 1848 till his death, starting from 1867 the king of Hungary, husband of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. His rule lasted 68 years. The fight for freedom was already going on when Franz Joseph came to the throne, in December the empire started an overall attack against Hungary, and they defeated the freedom fighters successfully with the help of the Russian emperor, Nicholas. According to the Compromise from 1867, the emperor acknowledged the laws from 1848, he appointed the Hungarian Ministry in charge, and created the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy that ensured a unique economic and cultural growth for our region, as well.
6. Péter Pázmány Is Dictating His Works, 1885.
(Péter Pázmány Catholic University)
Péter Pázmány (Nagyvárad-Oradea, 1570 – Pozsony-Bratislava, 1637), bishop of Esztergom, cardinal, leading figure of the Hungarian anti-reformation, writer, his works are a proof of a great genius, a scientific mind and a strong literary language. His education began in Várad, and it continued in Cracow and Kolozsvár (Cluj), while it ended in Vienna (philosophy) and Rome (theology). In Nagyszombat he founded a boarding school and a school of theology in 1619, then another colledge in Vienna in 1623, which is still existing (Collegium Pazmanianum). In 1635 he founded a university in Nagyszombat with a Faculty of Theology and Philosophy (its successors are the Eötvös Loránd University and the Pázmány Péter Catholic University).
