Jacek MALCZEWSKI (1854-1929), Exiles - a study

oil, cardboard, 71 x 56 cm;
Signed p. g.: J. Malczewski;
on the back an exhibition sticker from the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Cracow, 1939, from Jacek Malczewski's monographic exhibition cat. no. 62 and no. 1572, and the painting's title "Study".

Jacek Malczewski's paintings are characterized by a strong charge of symbolism, patriotic content, filled with glorification of the homeland. In the 4th quarter of the 19th century, the artist turns to themes depicting the fate of Poles exiled to Siberia, taking inspiration from the poetry of Juliusz Slowacki and the works of Artur Grottger.
The offered painting by Jacek Malczewski comes from the collection of Stanislaw Holenderski - an industrialist, social activist and art collector from Zawiercie. The work, titled "Study," is listed under number 62 in the catalog of Jacek Malczewski's posthumous exhibition organized by T.P.S.P in Krakow in 1939, as his property.
The painting was also mentioned in a review of the painter's exhibition in "Czas" magazine [no. 193], where W. St. Mazurkiewicz writes: "In addition to the compositions, we also see a number of excellent figural studies at the exhibition, such as 'Study' (cat. no. 62), in which the human figure, treated with succinct force, seems to come out of the frame, as it were."
The presented work by Jacek Malczewski is a poignant portrait study of a man, a Siberian exile, which could also serve as an illustration for Teofil Lenartowicz's text "Siberian Shadows", where there is a shocking passage: "Whoever traverses the Siberian deserts / Will know how the space of Europe is small, / All distance for such a one will perish / And everything will seem petty to him. Eternity for such a one on the day of death will not fear, / Indefinite gray like the dark steppe, It's all the same to him brightness or underground darkness, / And hell ... in hell can not be worse."

(compiled. based on: Jacek Malczewski, Catalogue of the exhibition of the T.P.S.P in Cracow, 1939; Exhibition of Jacek Malczewski in the Cracow Palace of Art, W. St. Mazurkiewicz, in "Czas", 1939 [July 15], no. 193, p.6.; Teofil Lenartowicz, Cienie Syberyjskie, Lvov 1883, p.14.; collections.mnk.pl)