The privately owned painting, considered to be one of Csontváry?s most important works, was sold at the Kieselbach Gallery?s winter auction. Its starting price was just HUF 85 million.
?The central motif of the picture is the couple: the figure of the man, which must be Csontváry's hidden self-portrait, and the woman wearing a blue dress, who is gently touching his hand. Their gaze is entwining, gentleness, surrender and the timeless silence of the moment is suggested,? Péter Molnos writes in the catalogue.
Csontváry produced the painting in 1902, but it had never come up for sale. It was put on display to the public for the first time ever just a few weeks before the auction.
Of Csontváry?s 127 known works, only 22 paintings and 3 graphic works are in private collections; the rest are in museums. Only four Csontváry paintings have been sold at auction in the past 15 years. The last one went for HUF 180 million in the spring.
Friday?s auction was the Kieselbach Gallery?s most successful ever, generating sales of more than HUF 1 billion.
To see the painting, visit www.kieselbach.hu/m-16746
