Author: Alfons Karpiński
Title: Still Life with Hydrangea
Technique: oil, cardboard
Dimensions: 73.5 x 35 cm
Dimensions with frame: 91.5 x 54 cm
Signed l.d.: "A. Karpiński" (signature faintly visible)
Artwork description:
Alfons Karpinski was a Krakow painter known as a creator of female portraits and still lifes, which already during his lifetime gained recognition among many collectors.
In the offered painting, the artist used an elaborate painterly texture and a slightly blurred outline, characteristic of his work. The color palette of the whole is subdued and warm, broken by the coolness of the white of the flowers. In the center of the composition is a pot with a hydrangea bush, which clearly stands out from the uniform light brown background. In the lower right corner, in turn, there are three different-colored apples, which, together with the flower stem bending to the left, dynamize the entire composition.
"Still Life with Hydrangea" is a unique work in the context of Alfons Karpinski's oeuvre, as the artist rarely used clearly vertical, narrow pictorial fields. The hydrangea motif, which stands out against the background of compositions with roses, common in Alfons Karpinski's paintings, is also unusual and thus very interesting.