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This painting by Jenő Gyárfás, of Transylvanian origin, is the pictorial representation of the dramatic lines of János Arany's beautiful ballad of the same name. He began to work on the suject in 1876, when he was still a student at the Munich Academy. In this first sketch, a horrified group of people crowd around the body of Benő Bárczi, while his betrothed, Abigail Kund, recoils in fearful disbelief. The contrast of the light and dark tones of background fills the composition with dramatic tension( "...dismay chills the blood in the hearth," were János Arany's own words. The full-scale work, on permanent exhibition in the Hungarian National Gallery, was completed at Jenő Gyárfás's native town of Sepsiszentgyörgy, and shows the last scene of the ballad. Although the full-scale work lacks some of the passion of the sketch, it is nevertheless one of the best of his academic paintings, and shows a realistic approach and true depth of characterization.
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