watercolor on paper, 50x35 cm, signed lower right: Irena Knothe
The artist studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw under K. Tichy and T. Pruszkowski. Her work most frequently featured portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. She worked in both oil and watercolor. She held several solo exhibitions between 1946 and 1965. She also participated in group exhibitions in Stockholm and London.
The work dates from the 1960s and depicts a portrait of a young man—a painter or artist from the artist’s social and artistic circle. The figure wears a distinctive, jauntily perched dark beret and a dark scarf, which directly evokes the traditional image of postwar artistic bohemia
