Signed l.d.: M. G. Wywiórski
On the loom and on the back of the canvas, stamps of the Munich company - a warehouse of painting and drawing materials - Schachinger & Herrmann;
on the upper strip of the loom twice numbered (in blue crayon): 613;
in addition, on the frame, a fragment of an Agra-Art auction sticker from June 1997 and auction stickers from a Warsaw and Katowice auction house.
Through the Deep Snows is a painting created in the early period of the artist's career. Both the manner of painting and the subject matter of the painting point to the years Wywiórski spent at the Munich Academy. During his studies, the painter also took lessons outside the academy. He attended private studios, of the most prominent Polish masters, Jozef Brandt and Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski.
The scene on display refers to the motif of a winter sleigh ride, popular in Wierusz's work. The genre scenes of Polish village life popularized by the artist were very popular. No wonder, then, that the young Wywiórski took up the theme adored by the master.
Even at an early stage of his work, Wywiórski excelled in landscape. The artist reproduced the light extremely naturally and depicted snow shimmering with shades of pink cast by the setting sun. Against the backdrop of the village huts rides a host of sleighs, laboriously trudging through the deep snow. In the sleigh sits a gentleman, accompanied by servants - a coachman and a man with a rifle, who provides protection in case of a wolf attack. The artist painted their faces with remarkable realism.
Wywiórski's paintings from the Munich period are a great rarity on the antiquarian market, so the appearance of this work at auction is a treat for collectors.
Michal Gorstkin Wywiórski (Warsaw 1861 - Berlin 1926) studied in Munich between 1883 and 1887; at the Academy under professors Karl Raup and Nikolaus Gysis, and simultaneously in the private studios of Jozef Brandt and Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski. In 1884 he made his debut at an exhibition at the TPSP in Cracow, and also showed his works in Munich, where in 1894 at the Glaspalast international exhibition he was awarded a medal for his painting From the Lithuanian Forest. In 1895 he moved to Berlin, invited by Wojciech Kossak and Julian Fałat to work on the panorama Berezina (1895-1896). He settled in Berlin for a longer period of time, and then stayed in Greater Poland and Warsaw. He also collaborated with Jan Styka on the panorama Battle of Sibiu (1897), and in 1900, together with Kossak, he traveled to Spain and Egypt to make plein air sketches for the intended panoramas Somosierra (not realized) and Battle of the Pyramids (1901). He also traveled to Lithuania, the island of Sylt, Norway, Sweden, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, painted in Amsterdam, the Crimea and the Caucasus. In his early works, strongly influenced by Brandt and Wierusz-Smith, he painted hunting and genre scenes and paintings with Tartars, Cossacks or Cherokees, which brought him success in the Munich art market. Over time, pure landscape, perceived and painted sensitively and fondly, became the chief subject of his paintings.
