Description
On the back a sketch of the nude
Oil, cardboard; 53 x 70 cm
Signed l.d.: Wlastimil Hofman 1921
Asking price 40000
Estimate 60000 - 65000
◙ droit de suite
Auction 209, 29.01.2022
Hofman here corresponds with his teacher Jacek Malczewski's 1904 painting Landscape with Tobias. The pensive old man is juxtaposed with a child. The Old Testament story of Tobias, a young man searching for a cure for his father, but above all for the path of his own happiness - is a universal motif of the human journey through life.
Wlastimil HOFMAN
1881 Karlino - 1970 Szklarska Poreba
From 1895 to 1899 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under F. Cynk, J. Malczewski, J. Unierzycki and J. Stanislawski. He spent the years 1899-1901 at the Paris Academie des Beaux-Arts under J.L. Gerôme. From 1901 he continued his studies at his alma mater in the studio of L. Wyczółkowski. He belonged to the Society of Czech Artists "Manes" and the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka". He was a co-founder of the Group of Five and Group Zero. During World War II he was in the USSR, Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. After returning to Poland, he settled in Cracow and then moved to Szklarska Poreba. His work was greatly influenced by the symbolic work of J. Malczewski. Hofman painted mainly religious paintings, genre scenes, portraits and landscapes. His models were often poor, simple people, who gained a timeless dignity in his works.
