Franciszek Kostrzewski (1826 Warsaw - 1911 there), Last Pines, 1896

oil, canvas, 232 × 146 cm
Signed and dated p. d.: "F. KOSTRZEWSKI/ 1896"

Provenance:
- Felicia Gadomska's family collection
- from 1930s to 1959 deposit at the National Museum in Warsaw
- private collection, Poland

Exhibited:
- Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw, 1896
- Polish Embassy in Prague (until 1957). Image donated to the embassy by the National Museum in Warsaw (according to MNW documentation)
- Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Franciszek Kostrzewski [monographic exhibition] on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death, 1936.

Described and reproduced:
- "Report of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in the Kingdom of Poland, Catalogue of Works Installed at the Exhibition of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in the Kingdom of Poland in 1896", Warsaw 1897 Printed by K. Kowalewski, p. 33
- "Franciszek Kostrzewski (1826 -1911), on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death", Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Guide 117, November 1936, p. 26, cat. item 90.
- "Literary Feast," 1898, I no.2, p.21
- "Franciszek Kostrzewski. Catalog of Works", Historical Museum of the City of Warsaw, Warsaw 1963, cat. item 46, p.47.
Currently the painting deposited in the National Museum in Kielce.

"Love for nature germinated in Franciszek already when he was a few years old boy, who moved from Warsaw to the Świętokrzyskie countryside. Not only did he have a great time there among the picturesque hills covered with lush vegetation, but also, though perhaps not quite consciously, absorbed their undeniable charm with all his being, building his artistic sensitivity. In fact, the painter mentioned this in his memoirs. His first childhood drawings, created under the Świętokrzyskie sky, were the result of careful observation of nature, bird and animal life, but also of the villagers and their customs. Immortalizing the world around him became so important to the young man that, despite his family's displeasure, he eventually decided to devote himself to art and began studying at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. His professors were the esteemed landscape painters of the time - Chrystian Breslauer and Marcin Zaleski, as well as Jan Feliks Piwarski, who specialized in landscape and genre painting. After his studies, Kostrzewski visited important places for European art: Dresden, Berlin, Vienna, Brussels and Paris. There he certainly deepened his knowledge of painting and encountered new trends, especially Barbizon painting. However, it was too short a trip to have a significant impact on his work. As he later wrote in his aforementioned memoirs, he remained faithful to his native inspirations: "Being constantly in the country, I only understand the country, national characters and national surroundings I only paint, and it seems to me,
in drawings I have become the clearest to my own." At the same time, he admitted that he valued Polish nature the most: "Here I must voice my surprise, why in our country, with so many different directions in painting, there are so few landscape painters? [...] After all, I have been to Germany and France a little, and mostly encountered forests, admittedly very decently maintained, but very poor."

No wonder he painted Polish forests, meadows and wilderness with such enthusiasm. Following the example of his master Jan Feliks Piwarski, he always wove characters into his landscapes, who not only completed the compositions, but were also important elements of the story the painter was telling. Usually Kostrzewski depicted multiple episodes on several sets. Precisely painted and skillfully integrated into the landscape, the figures performed various activities, often having nothing to do with each other. He depicted the silhouettes with great authenticity, and their gestures and poses were varied. (...).
In the painting presented here, undoubtedly the protagonists are the trees, not only the pines mentioned in the title, but also the slender birch. Several scenes take place in their shadow. In the foreground can be seen an elderly man with a sumptuous gray mustache wearing a distinctive baseball cap, a long coat, boots with uppers, with a large loaded bag slung over his shoulder and a stick in his hand. It's probably the grove-keeper, who is firmly holding a leaning young girl in a white blouse and red kerchief on her head. The peasant girl is holding a basket into which she must have been collecting the gifts of the forest, which may not have pleased the gamekeeper, who is now waiting for the men to finish their conversation to introduce them to the culprit. They, in turn, are discussing, looking at the treetops and presumably determining further plans for them. Another figure can be seen in the distance. It's an old man in rags walking uphill, possibly an insurgent veteran, supporting himself on a crutch. The scenes are set in a vast landscape painted with great sensitivity and simplicity. Particularly characteristic are the lofty trees, in the rendering of which Kostrzewski was a true master. As the aforementioned Gomulicki wrote: "Such especially pines and poplars of the Vistula River I have never met. Kostrzewski's pines smell of resin and crunch their needles; poplars are full of secret whispers and recite endless prayers...". And the artist himself noted: "Our pines, willows, poplars, oaks and so many other trees make such wonderful patterns." The birch tree on the left side of the composition and the monumental old pines tower over the landscape with their crowns. The way they are painted perfectly combines the mannerism characteristic of the Dutch masters, with whom the artist was fascinated, with his own observation of nature and the phenomena occurring in it, conducted during his plein-air studies. The painter juxtaposed the impressively lofty trees with the felled trunks, which not only differentiates the space of the painting, but may also be a reference to unjust social relations. Indeed, such references appeared quite often in Kostrzewski's work. In the background of the composition one can see
sandy escarpment overgrown with young trees, and still further away is a vast, flat, slightly misty landscape, over which the blue sky, obscured by delicate clouds, dominates. The color scheme of the painting, like that of most of Kostrzewski's works, is maintained in a range of warm, golden browns (probably influenced by Piwarski, but also by Dutch painting), enriched with tones of saturated green in the landscape parts and small accents of bright, vivid colors in the clothes of the figures.

All the elements mentioned above, both the elaborate, narratively framed anecdote of generic scenes, set against the background of a varied landscape with characteristic groups of lofty trees, and the painterly means used, are typical of Franciszek Kostrzewski's work. Interestingly, the painting was created in a later period, when the artist abandoned oil painting and focused on his illustration activities. As can be seen, however, despite the accusations made against him by critics of lowering his artistic standards at that time, even then true masterpieces were coming out from under his brush, of which the painting from the Kielce museum is an excellent example." (compiled by Magdalena Silwanowicz, Narodowe w Kielcach, online collections)

"Kostrzewski had a clear fondness for landscape from his early youth. As mentioned above, he was fond of forests and beautiful trees. Delighting in the poplars in Tarchomin, he would wonder, 'why in our country, with so many diverse directions in painting, there are so few landscape painters?' After all, our pines, willows, poplars, oaks and so many other trees make such wonderful patterns." The plain landscape of Mazovia particularly suited him. "...I find it most pleasant to stay," he - he wrote - "in the summer in the hinterlands of the Kingdom; neither, the Carpathians nor the zabużne kraje somehow draw me." In the early days of his artistic activity, he spent a lot of time in the Kielce region eagerly recreating the hilly countryside there, dotted with ruins of historic buildings. Later he would find in him his re-creator mainly Mazovian woods and sands, enlivened by the characters of the inhabitants of the local villages, so faithfully observed and skillfully recreated."
(I.Jakimowicz, "Franciszek Kostrzewski", Warsaw 1952, p. 32.)