Mihaly Zichy (1827-1906) was a Hungarian Romantic painter, making his home in various European cities - Vienna, St. Petersburg, Paris - and achieving a fair amount of recognition during his lifetime. At one point he was named a court painter of the Tsar.

He might be distressed (or amused, depending on temperament) to discover that in the 21st century he's better known (at least in the non-Hungarian world) for a couple series of erotic drawings he created on the side rather than his beautiful full-color oils painted for wealthy & distinguished patrons and even national rulers. But history has a way of shifting legacies into unlikely directions...

These pieces *do* display the effortless technical skill you'd expect from an accomplished artist, but what's most impressive about them is the atmosphere they capture - sometimes melancholy, or loving, brazen, etc, always with a sense that these are real people behind the images. In the genre of erotic art where titillation, amusement, & arousal as the main goal, it's rare to find pieces with depth like this. Interesting stuff.