lithograph/paper, 40.5 x 54.5 cm (composition), approx. 56 x 68 cm (sheet)
in the composition, signature of the painter and date of the painting, bottom right: Leopold Leoffler/1860 below the composition in the center: Printed at [illegible] Reiffenstein and Rösch in Vienna / OSTATNIE CHWILE STEFANA CZARNIECKI. R. 1665. / Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Cracow to its members for the year 1861 / From the gallery of paintings of J. W. Count Włodzimierz Dzieduszycki in Lwów; left: Leopold Löffler painted; right: Józef Bauer drawn on stone
good state of preservation
LITERATURE:
- Jolanta Polanowska, Löffler (Loeffler) Leopold, [entry in:] Słownik artystów polskich i obcych w Polsce działających, Warsaw 1993, vol. V, pp. 128-132.
Leopold Loeffler studied art in the mid-19th century in Vienna, Paris and Munich. He settled in Vienna, where he became a member of the Academy of Fine Arts. At that time he met the circle of Polish artists residing in Vienna. In 1877 he moved to Cracow and became a professor at the Cracow academy. He practiced history and genre, genre and portrait painting. Loeffler "was one of the most popular painters of the pre-Matejko era. His work was successful both in Austria and at home, where his success was actually due to his four paintings from the years 1859-63 with themes from the history of his homeland, which were repeatedly reproduced [...]" (J. Polanowska, in Słownik artystów polskich i obcych w Polsce działających, Warsaw 1993, vol. V, p. 129). Among these paintings is the 1860 canvas "Death of Hetman Czarniecki," which is in the collection of the National Museum in Wroclaw. According to Jolanta Polanowska, this composition was repeated by the artist at least twice. A compositionally more modest version of the painting, lacking many details, is in the National Museum in Warsaw. Graphic reproductions of Loeffler's paintings were published as premiums of the Cracow Society of Friends of Fine Arts, among others, of which the presented lithograph is an example.
