Jacek Malczewski (1854 Radom - 1929 Krakow), At the Well (Poisoned Well), 1902.

oil, canvas, 68 × 51.5 cm
Signed p. d.: "J. Malczewski".

On the painter's loom two stamps of the factory of Róża Aleksandrowicz in Cracow and the stamp numbers: "50" and "67" referring to the size of the subpainting, on the back of the frame a paper sticker of the Salon for the Sale of Works of Art at the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Krakow and collection inventory stickers

Provenance:
- private collection, Poland
- Polswiss Art auction house, Auction of Works of Art 11.10.2016

Reproduced:
- T. Grzybkowska, "World of paintings by Jacek Malczewski," Warsaw 1996, il. 3 ("Poisoned Wells. Christ and the Samaritan Woman. St. John the Baptist"), p. 107.

Literature:
- "Jacek and Rafał Malczewski," edited by Z. Posiadała, Radom 2014.
- L. Migrała, "Jagiellońska Street in Nowy Sącz from the end of the 19th century to 1945
- inhabitants and buildings", Library of "Rocznik Sadecki", Nowy Sącz 2012
- T. Grzybkowska, "World of paintings by Jacek Malczewski," Warsaw 1996, il. 3 ("Poisoned Wells. Christ and Samaritan. St. John the Baptist"), p. 107.

The painting offered at auction is among the early compositions in which Malczewski introduced the well motif. From the same period come the realizations of the "Fairy Tales" series, preceding the so-called Rogalin series, in which the motif of poisoned wells resounded most fully in the artist's work. Malczewski made the backdrop of the painted composition the home garden of his wife's family in Nowy Sącz, Jagiellonska Street. This is clearly indicated by a preserved photograph from the archives of the Jacek Malczewski Museum in Radom, which immortalizes the Malczewski family by an identical cast-iron well with a characteristic water-drawing wheel, set on a square lined with stone cobblestones. Maria Malczewska's family owned two tenement houses at 56 and 58 Jagiellońska St. One house was inhabited by her grandparents, Antoni and Julia Jana, née Kisielewska, while the other house was prescribed for ownership in 1888 to her mother, Jozefa Gralewska (see L. Migrała, "Jagiellońska Street in Nowy Sącz from the end of the 19th century to 1945 - inhabitants and buildings", Library of "Rocznik Sadecki", Nowy Sącz 2012, p. 100). It was there that Julia and Rafał Malczewski spent their childhood, living with their mother at her family's home from 1892 to 1899, and later spending vacations in Nowy Sącz. Although constantly on the move and bound by his duties as an artist, Jacek Malczewski was eager to visit the children. We can find an extensive and very vivid description of the "Nowy Sącz world" at Jagiellonska Street in the memoirs of Rafal Malczewski: "I know that I lived in the tenement next to the house my great-grandparents lived in. The door was pierced between the two "properties". The garden located at the back of both houses was something bigger to me than Europe is today. It was planted with vegetable and fruit trees, full of green thickets, paths running in the shade of dark violet thickets, slippery with holes riddled with scrawl by earthworms or ants. The garden ran toward the blue expanse. At one point it flew down toward the railroad, running in a circle at the foot of the foothills on which Nowy Sącz stands. There at the bottom was an old fence and clumps of nettles. The hillside was overgrown with plum and cherry trees with dark, almost black fruit. Beyond the railroad stretched the Wólki up to the wickiups of the Dunajec River. Farther away it was blue and immensely far. In the clear bottoms, which were only washed by rain, an azure screen grew in the depths beyond the usual dark blue foothills. These were the Tatra Mountains as I was told." (R. Malczewski, "Recollection about my father," [in:] "Jacek and Rafał Malczewski," ed. Z. Posiadała, Radom 2014, pp. 49-50). In the memoirs of the artist's son, there is also mention of the well from the painting offered at auction. According to Rafał Malczewski's account, his great-grandparents believed that the water drawn from it was supposed to have healing properties. Thus, it is worth considering whether the title "Poisoned Well," under which the painting customarily appears in the literature (see T. Grzybkowska, "Świat obrazów Jacka Malczewskiego," Warsaw 1996, il. 3 ("Poisoned Well. Christ and Samaritan. St. John the Baptist"), p. 107) is adequate. The well painted in the picture seems to be more a symbol of the source of life, freedom, and hope, which is intensified by the presence of a child. One may also wonder if the boy painted in the picture is the artist's son. From the period of the artist's residence in Nowy Sącz come two portraits, of Antoni Jany and his wife, and two New Sącz landscapes, including "View of Jagiellońska Street." The well itself from the garden on Jagiellońska Street also appeared in a sketch composition from the early 20th century (Sopot Auction House, Auction of Works of Art, 28.11.2015, item 2).