Bohdan Konrad Eligard Kelles-Krauze (1885 - 1945), Landscape with houses

oil, canvas, size 40 x 45 cm

Thoroughly educated architect and also painter Bohdan Konrad Eligard Kelles - Krause (1885 -1945) came from a wealthy landowning family. He began his studies in Kiev, and through St. Petersburg, Lviv and Munich, and then Paris, Vienna and Krakow, he ended up in Lublin, with which he tied his professional life as an architect. His architectural legacy is well recognized and documented, while his painting legacy - as important to himself as his architecture - is still waiting to be recognized and compiled. It is known that he took painting seriously, that he participated in many exhibitions with a positive reception, that he was educated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, that he was associated with the Munich Secession, and that in Paris he deepened his studies and met with the Polish artistic community there. However, most of his works remain unrecognized.The presented work, which comes from a larger collection, was probably created in the 1920s and clearly refers to the painting solutions of the Formists, retaining the characteristic pastel, muted colors evident in the author's other oil paintings and gouaches. Against the background of Lublin's artistic environment, Bohdan Kelles - Krause's work defines him as an avant-garde artist constantly seeking new and modern forms of expression.