Baron László Mednyánszky,[1] also known by his Latinized name Ladislaus Josephus Balthasar Eustachius Mednyánszky (Slovak: Ladislav Medňanský; 23 April 1852 – 17 April 1919), was a Slovak–Hungarian painter and philosopher, considered one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of Hungarian art.

Mednyánszky spent considerable periods in seclusion but mingled with people across society – in the aristocracy, art world, peasantry and army – many of whom became the subjects of his paintings.

[11] Mednyánszky's family moved in 1861 to the chateau of his grandfather, Baltazár Szirmay, at Nagyőr [hu] (Strážky), near Szepesbéla (Spišská Belá, now in northeastern Slovakia).

After the death of his professor, Isidore Pils, in 1875, Mednyánszky left the École and began practicing independently from Montmartre.

Mednyánszky returned to Nagyőr (Strážky) after 1877 to continue painting, and subsequently traveled widely across Europe, between his childhood homes in Upper Hungary and Budapest, Vienna, Paris and beyond.

After spending some time working in Budapest, Mednyánszky died in poor health in the spring of 1919, in Vienna.

His works depict landscape scenes of nature, the weather and everyday, poor people such as peasants and workmen.

His works are currently displayed in the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava and Strážky chateau, which was donated to SNG by his niece Margit Czóbel in 1972.

In 2004 a New York gallery was host to a show of about seventy 19th- and early 20th-century Hungarian paintings, and a few works on paper, from the collection of Nicholas Salgo, a former United States ambassador to Hungary.