Bolesław Szańkowski, PORTRAIT OF HIS DAUGHTER HELENA, ca. 1916

76.3 x 66 cm - oil on canvas

signed lower left: Szańkowski
Auction labels on the back of the stretcher and on the frame.

Bolesław Szańkowski (Warsaw 1873 – Fischbachau, Bavaria 1953), a popular portrait painter, studied at the Kraków School of Fine Arts (1891–1894), at the Munich Academy under Johann C. Herterich (1894), and at the Académie Colarrosi and the Académie Julian in Paris (1896–1898). In 1912, he settled permanently in Munich, from where he frequently traveled to France, Belgium, England, Scotland, and the United States. A highly regarded portraitist, he painted many formal portraits of members of the aristocracy and European ruling families. Among those he portrayed were Ignacy Paderewski, Princess Daisy von Pless, the Radziwiłł and Potocki families, the imperial family in Berlin, and the royal family of Romania. He enjoyed painting idealized portraits of beautiful and refined ladies as well as more intimate, charming portraits of children, often depicting his own daughters—Ada and Helena. At the Paris Salon in 1900, he received a mention honorable for his painting *Portrait of an Officer*. He participated in numerous exhibitions in Germany and Austria; he frequently submitted paintings to national exhibitions; in 1928 and 1939, he held major solo exhibitions at the Zachęta in Warsaw.
(Note: Szańkowski’s place of birth is given according to the Thieme-Becker dictionary; various sources also mention Kępno or Pogwizdów in the Kielce region.)