![Mihály Munkácsy - Afternoon in the Park [c.1880]](http://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7427/27266699816_81b41381d6_b.jpg)
An Afternoon in the Park was painted at the height of Munkácsy's success as a painter of the beau monde in Paris, where he had settled in 1871. It depicts two elegant young women, in the latest Paris fashions, resting in a woodland setting after promenading in what could well be the Bois de Boulogne, a favoured retreat among the urban leisured classes at the time.
The picture exemplifies Munkácsy's work from this period, which in terms of its elegant subject is in marked contrast to his earlier history paintings and scenes from peasant life. This change in direction was in direct response to the tastes of his new well-to-do Parisian patrons, and became even more marked after Munkácsy entered into a ten-year contract with the upmarket Galerie Sedelmeyer in 1878.
[Sotheby’s, London - Oil on canvas, 69.5 x 102.5 cm]