This fine, tasteful miniature painted on ivory was copied from the 1841 Kossuth-lithography by Franz Eybl (1806-1880), a famous painter of the Vienna Academy. Eybl, who worked in Vienna at the time, and then in Hungary from 1842, was commissioned to produce lithographs of several Hungarian politicians of the time, including István Széchenyi in addition to Kossuth's. Another famous portrait of Kossuth can be attributed to Austrian hands: August Prinzhofer and Johann Rauh immortalized perhaps the (arguably) best-known politician in our history in 1848. Although the facial features of the great Hungarian reformers were usually preserved in the national memory through the depictions of Miklós Barabás (1810-1898), Kossuth's depictions of both Austrians are notable in the iconography of the reform period, and many artistic adaptations were based on them. Kossuth is one of the first modern Hungarian politicians who consciously shaped his political image; he viewed his depictions with underlying goals and calculations. Eybl depicts the immensely popular politician with calm wisdom, in contrast to Prinzhofer and Rauh who portray him as determined, heroically forward-looking and showing the way for his country. Probably a contemporary fan of Kossuth, a dilettante art lover, could have copied Eybl's lithograph.
(Using the description of Kossuth-iconography of the BTM Capital Gallery.)