Bolesław Biegas (1877 Koziczyn - 1954 Paris), General Michel Joseph Maunoury, from the series "Great People," 1945-1946

oil, plywood, 73 × 56 cm light frame
Signed p. d.: "B. Biegas"

Exhibited:
- Exhibition at the artist's atelier at 3 bis Rue Bagneux, Paris, 1948.
- "Bolesław Biegas 1877-1954, exhibition on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the artist's death", Mazovian Museum in Plock, June 5 - July 6, 2014.
Reproduced:
- Gelatin-silver print from the New York Times Photos establishment at 37 Rue Caum artin in Paris, collection of the Polish Library in Paris, Inv. no.: THL. BPP.Phot.Bieg.62 (later reproduced in publications dedicated to the artist - listed below)
- "Boleslaw Biegas 1877-1954: Sculpture - Painting", Mazovian Museum in Plock, Polish Historical and Literary Society in Paris, Plock 1997 [exhibition catalog], p. 51 - archival photo from the exhibition
- X. Deryng, "Bolesław Biegas", Polish Historical and Literary Society, Polish Library in Paris, [Paris 2011]. p. 146 - archival photo from the exhibition
-" Boleslaw Biegas 1877-1954", Mazovian Museum in Plock, Plock 2014 [exhibition catalog], p. 14 - archival photo from the exhibition

"He is a moody artist par excellence. The way he treats his subjects, often incomprehensible and not immediately tangible [original spelling], also corresponds completely to the nature of his impressions, half-conscious and theoretically disordered. It also corresponds at the same time to the forms of work of many artists today, who give us in their works (sincerely and insincerely) not objective content, but "states of their souls." (H. Biegeleisen, "Sculpture and Painting. Bolesław Biegas", Warsaw 1915, p. 40.) Michel Joseph Maunoury (1847 Maintenon - 1923 Artenay) - commander of French forces during World War I, major general of artillery, posthumously raised to the rank of Marshal of France as of March 31, 1923. He received his education at the École polytechnique and the Officers' School of Artillery. He remained in the service since 1867, initially at the rank of officer. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Legion of Honor for his active participation in combat during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. In 1910, he was appointed War Governor of Paris. At the end of 1912, he retired from the reserves. He was called back into service after the outbreak of World War I. In September 1914, he commanded the 6th Army, which contributed significantly to the victory achieved at the Battle of the Marne. In 1915, as a result of severe wounds, Maunoury had to relinquish command of the 6th Army and retire from active duty.
The offered painting is part of a series of twenty political portraits that Biegas painted between 1945 and 1946 as a kind of political commentary on the reality that befell Poland under the influence of the Soviet Union after World War II (X. Deryng, "Bolesław Biegas," [Paris 2011]. p.146). Although most of the leaders portrayed are closely related to the events of World War II, Biegas in several cases - as in the image of Michel Joseph Maunoury - alluded to earlier times. What is notable about this series of paintings is that "the faces of the politicians have expressions that make it impossible to guess their beliefs, as if Biegas had placed defenders of democracy and dictators on the same plane (ibid., p. 146). In addition to Maunoury, the painter portrayed the following figures: Ignatius Paderewski, Winston Churchill, Ferdinand Foch, Francisco Franco, Mohandas Karamchad Ghandi, Charles de Gaulle, Adolf Hitler, Kamel Pach, Philippe Leclerc, Jan Masaryk, Benito Mussolini, Pius XII, Jozef Pilsudski, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin, Harry Truman, Thomas Wilson, Georges Clemenceau and one portrait of an unidentified politician. The entire series refers to the formal solutions that the artist had already begun, in a way, in the series "Vampires of War" (multicolored, concentric backgrounds), and developed most fully in the so-called spherical paintings. The first of these were already created in 1918-1919, then dominated the artist's work until the mid-1920s. Political portraits are the last manifestation of spherism in the artist's work. Unlike the works created earlier, the colored circles and circles drawn with a circus do not overlap the faces of the portrayed, which are painted in a realistic manner, but only cover parts of the outfits and backgrounds. The spherical paintings of the 1920s were characterized by greater "geometric deformation." However, one as well as the other images cannot be denied the power of expression. Ewa Bobrowska-Jakubowska summarizes the politically tinged works in Biegas' artistic output as follows: "Political themes actually run through the entirety of Biegas' painting work, but only events of great importance, armed conflicts, and especially world wars force the artist to take hold of the brush and settle accounts with history. In times of peace, the artist is more concerned with his own interior and its analysis. This is, by the way, an attitude that everyone expects from artists. Biegas, moreover, consistently maintains the attitude of an artist-commentator of facts in his political works. Although he stigmatizes specific events, he does so not in a convention reminiscent of political struggle, but from the position of an artist-sage, an artist-priest, a moralizer whose role is to ennoble humanity."
(E. Bobrowska-Jakubowska, Agitator or Moralizer? Biegas and his "political paintings," [in:] "Bolesław Biegas 1877-1954," Plock 1997, p. 62.