Jan Walach(1884, Istebna-1979,Istebna),Istebna in winter,1924

oil, board; 37 x 27.5 cm; 45.5 x 36 cm (frame, framed); signed and dated l. d.: J. WAŁACH 1924; cracked and chipped paint layer

painter, printmaker and sculptor came from a family of Beskid highlanders. From 1898 he was a student of the Polish Grammar School of Macierzy Szkolnej in Cieszyn, and then of the Sculpture School in Zakopane, where he studied with Jan Nalborczyk (1901-1903). From 1904 to 1908 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under J. Mehoffer, J. Fałat, F. Ruszczyc and J. Stanisławski. With a scholarship from the Academy of Fine Arts, he went to Paris and continued his studies at the Acadèmie Julien and the École de Beaux Arts.