Jacek Malczewski, APOTEOSIS OF IGNACEGO MACIEJOWSKI. GUIDED BY AN ANGEL, 1902

34.8 x 25.0cm - oil, cardboard



Signed p.g.: J Malczewski | 1902

On the reverse (in pencil): S. Mikulski | ...

On the lower bar of the frame a sticker of the auction house.



Provenance:

- Collection of Zbigniew Mikulski (1925-2017) in Sankt Gallen, Switzerland;

- as of 2019 in a private collection in Poland.



Reproduced, exhibited and mentioned painting:

- Epitaphium of Ignacy Maciejowski Sewer, Krakow 1902, il., p. nlb;

- T. Boy-Żeleński, Znasz-li ten kraj, published by Boy's Library, Warsaw 1932, p. 115, il;

- J. Kulczycka-Saloni, H. Markiewicz, Z. Żabicki, Literatura polska w okresie realizmu i naturalizmu, vol. II, published by PWN, Warsaw 1965, p. 541;

- T.Z. Bednarski, Krakowskie szlakiem Juliana Fałata, wyd. Secesja, Krakow 2005, p. 72;

- St. Frybes, Ignacy Piotr Marian Maciejowski, in Polski Słownik Biograficzny, vol. XLV, ed. of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw-Krakow 2007-2008, p. 58;

- D. Kudelska, Dukt pisma i pędzla. Intellectual Biography of Jacek Malczewski, Wyd. KUL, Lublin 2008, p. 218;

- A. Ziętek-Salwik, Ignacy Sewer Maciejowski in the artistic environment of Cracow, "Kolbuszowa Yearbook", R. 2011, vol. XI, p. 60;

- N. Pichłacz, M. Skowronska, A. Kielczyńska, M. Kardas (eds.), Returns. The Swiss Collection of Zbigniew Mikulski. Exhibition catalog, Take Care Foundation, 24 May - 31 August 2019, Bydgoszcz 2019, p. 111, il.



Ignacy Maciejowski, alias "Sewer", "Gryf" (Kobierniki 1835 - Kraków 1901) was a writer and literary critic. In 1893 he settled in Krakow, where he immediately became one of the most important figures in Krakow's bohemian scene: "Although Sewer did not create masterpieces that are still remembered," writes Alina Ziętek-Salwik, "he enjoyed great recognition and readership among his contemporaries, and critics placed him among the greatest. He tackled a wide variety of subjects, had an uncommon ease and lightness of writing, and besides, by the end of his life he had become the most popular figure in the Krakow artistic world (dz. cit., p. 17). After his death, in 1902, a book was published, edited by S. Wyspiański, Epitaphium Ignacy Maciejowski Sewer, in which authors, including W. Reymont, T. Miciński, W. Tetmajer, K. Tetmajer, K.M. Górski, L. Rydel, S. Żeromski, S. Wyspiański, who paid tribute to the deceased, included their texts. The offered portrait, on the other hand, was reproduced in it in lithographic technique.

Jacek Malczewski (Radom 1854 - Cracow 1929) - a prominent representative of Polish modernist painting, began his artistic studies at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow, where in 1872-1875 he studied under Feliks Szynalewski, Władysław Łuszczkiewicz and Jan Matejko, whose studio he attended again in 1877-1879. Then he studied at the Paris École des Beaux Arts under E. Lehmann (1876-1877).

In 1880, he traveled to Italy. In 1884-1885, he took part - as a draughtsman - in Karol Lanckoroński's scientific expedition to Pamphylia and Pisidia in Little Asia. At that time he was also in Greece and Italy. In 1885-1886 he stayed in Munich for several months. Upon his return, he settled permanently in Cracow, from where he made further trips to Munich and Italy. In 1896-1900 he taught at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow, and from 1911-1922 he was a professor and twice rector of the Cracow Academy. He spent the years 1914-1915 in Vienna, and in 1916 returned to Cracow. In the last years of his life he stayed mainly in Luslawice and Charzewice near Zakliczyn. He was a co-founder of the Society of Polish Artists "Art" (1897) and a member of the "Zero" group (1908).
In his early period, he painted portraits, genre scenes and - above all - paintings with themes related to the martyrdom of Poles after the January Uprising (Death of Ellenai, Sunday in the Mine, On the Stage, Christmas Eve in Siberia). Later, from the 1890s, he created paintings with symbolic content with intermingled patriotic, biblical, fairy-tale, literary and allegorical-fantastic themes.