Art at the pharmacy

A valuable art piece has returned on display at the History of Pharmacy Museum of Cluj. It is a large painting, oil on canvas, depicting the portrait of pharmacist Pal Hrobonyi of Gherla. The piece was painted in 1877 by the well-known local artist Endre Kőváry who studied in Wien and then specialized in portraiture and landscape painting in Cluj, where he was also active as art teacher. An interesting detail is the fact that the work is signed and dated and that written sources attest that it was made after a photograph of the subject - a practice not unknown to the painter, as a similar portrait made after a photograph is preserved in the Art Museum of Cluj (it depicts baron Banffy Daniel).