Dusty Country Road I

In addition to producing genre paintings, portraits and still-lifes, Munk�csy was also a successful landscape painter. Following his visit to his young friend, the landscapist L�szl� Pa�l in Barbizon, he frequently painted landscapes by way of relaxation. The two versions of the painting Dusty Country Road commemorate the painter’s visit to his homeland in 1874. (Munk�csy moved to Paris in 1871.) While in the 1874 version the blurred outlines of a farm house by the road are also shown, in the 1883 version Munk�csy seemed to have been interested only in recording the atmosphere. Painting this landscape brought Munk�csy closer to the Impressionists, of whom he actually thought very little, and even to Turner, whose works he had seen during a brief visit to London.