Stanislaw WYSPIAŃSKI (1869-1907), Portrait of Beata Matejkówna

oil, duplicated canvas, 57 x 44 cm;
Signed p. d.: SW (tied monogram)

The offered painting - a rarity on the Polish antiquarian market - was examined by Ms. Marta Romanowska, an outstanding expert on the work of Stanisław Wyspiański and the author of his monograph. Her expert opinion on the painting, dated March 20, 1995, reads about the offered work, among other things:
"The picture is painted [...] in the convention of the still 19th century, romantic [...].The painting technique and composition of the picture, as well as the author's signature, indicate that both the author of the picture and the model were very young. In light of the research I have done, this painting could have been created between 1882 and 1885, with the date being more precise
1885 [...] There is a strong resemblance between the portraitist and her image painted by her father in 1882. - Beata Matejkówna [later Kirchmajerowa] with a canary. Judging by Wyspianski's works from around 1880-1882, he was not yet able to meet such an intention. Something different in 1884.At that time, as a junior high school student in the
pre-matriculation class, he enrolled at the same time in the School of Fine Arts as an extraordinary student in Department I of drawing [...]. The director of the School at the time was Jan Matejko.
[...] Wyspiański's drawings dated 1884. - Bolesław Szczodry in Niepołomice and The King of Alders clearly bear strong traits of the Matejko style. In addition, the drawing Bolesław Szczodry ... has a tied signature related to the one on the portrait in question: W inscribed in S. Wyspiański used such a signature from 1879 [...] later
several times this signature, before it became a well-known variant of the artist's tied monogram SW - placed on easel pastels until the end of his life, is within the limits of the variant of the one just known from the portrait of Beata from around 1885. [...].
Jan Matejko's daughter Beata was a peer of Stanislaw Wyspianski. Wyspiański was settled with the Matejko family by virtue of the fact that the Master had the friendship of both his father Franciszek and his uncle Kazimierz Stankiewicz. Stanisław Wyspiański's aunt Joanna, née Rogowska-Stankiewicz, his only guardian since (his) age of 12, was a
teacher of Matejko's daughters in Krzeslawice. [Until the end of his life, Matejko maintained lively social relations with the Stankiewicz family[...].
Documentation of the relationship before 1889 is contained in the artist's youthful sketchbooks from 1878 onward. [...] In light of it, there certainly could have been a situation in which the portrait in question was painted. And it would have been the earliest oil and finished known painting by Stanislaw Wyspianski. It would thus have to be considered a
a revelation of sorts, as it was neither known nor published."