Horowitz, Leopold

Hungarian painter; born in 1837 at Rozgony, near Kaschau, where he attended the gymnasium. He received instruction in painting from Roth until 1850, when he went to the Vienna Academy to study under Geiger, Meyer, and Wurzinger. There he remained for seven years, winning the first prize at his graduation. In 1860 he visited Berlin, Dresden, Munich, and finally Paris, where he resided for eight years, and obtained a reputation as an excellent portrait-and genre-painter, his subjects at this time being taken principally from child life. His most important picture of this period is "The First-Born." In his portraits he followed at first Rembrandt, and then Van Dyck, the character of his women's portraits being strongly reminiscent of the latter's style.

In 1868 he went to Warsaw in order to familiarize himself with the life of the Polish Jews. He also made frequent visits to Budapest, Vienna, and Berlin, where he was especially esteemed as a portrait painter by the ladies of the nobility. Among the scenes taken from the life of the Polish Jews may be mentioned: "Prayers in a Polish Synagogue on the Anniversary of the Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem"; "The Polish Tutor"; "The Harmless War" His finest portraits are those of the Princess of Sapieha, the Countess of Wedel, Georg Brandes, Maurice Jókai, Count Bariatinszky, Count and Countess Zamoyiski, and F. von Pulszky, director of the museum in Budapest. In 1891 Horowitz received a gold medal at the Berlin International Exhibition.

Bibliography:

  * Seybert, Künstler-Lexikon;
  * Meyers Konversations-Lexikon;
  * Ost und West, 1903, iii. 513-526.



S. J. So.