Marian Mokwa (1889 Malary - 1987 Sopot), From a trip to the Middle East

watercolor, paper, 30 × 24, 5 cm
Signed in pencil p. d.: "Mokwa"

Provenance:
Collection of the family of Antoni Małecki (1889-1977), Polish pharmacist and activist. Founder and owner of the first pharmacy in Gdynia, councilor of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, president of the Society of Independent Merchants in Gdynia. He was a co-founder of Gdynia in that unique period of its formation.

One of the most important periods in Marian Mokwa's life was a trip to Turkey in late 1911. It was then that his individual style was formed. The time spent on the Bosporus was a busy period for Marian Mokwa, filled with travel and painting. During this period, the artist used watercolor, a painting technique indispensable when working in the open air and constantly changing locations. In Turkey, he was interested in landscapes, fond of drawing human types, sketching the architecture of Istanbul and other cities of the Middle East. For a painter from the North, the Orient was a fascinating discovery, a world where exoticism is intertwined with antiquity. The East surprises and attracts with its splendor, sharpness of light, and fever of colors. His works from this period, sometimes created in an "impressionistic hurry," are evidence of true talent, surprising in their maturity. It was in Turkey that Mokwa got rid of stiffness and academic mannerism. The works are extremely luminous and light, filled with the aura characteristic of southern countries. It was then, during one of the naval battles of the Balkan War period, that he took a symbolic vow, dedicating his work to the sea. The outbreak of World War I interrupted the period of his first successes, popularity, critical favor and not inconsiderable fame as a watercolorist of the Orient.
Bibliography: Wojciech Zmorzyński, "Tureckie śluby Mariana Mokwa", exhibition catalog,National Museum in Gdansk, Gdansk 2014.