Jan Stanislawski (1860 - 1907), Study of clouds

oil, cardboard; 15 x 21.6 cm light frame;
Signed p. d.: "JAN STANISŁAWSKI";
On the reverse:
- exhibition sticker handwritten: "TOW. PRZYJ. SZTUK PIĘKNN. W KRAKOWIE / No. 113 / Author Stanislawski Jan / Title of work Studium obłoków / Type of work oil size [written word Price] 15 x 21.5 / Signature of author signed."
- stamp: "JAN STANISŁAWSKI / ZE SPUŚCIZNA POŚMIERTNEJ. / Janina Stanislawska (in ink) / ... [?] in Lithuania [?] / 1901" (in pencil).

Provenance:
private collection, Cracow

Bibliography:
Sterling M., "Jan Stanislawski with 32 Reproductions. Artistic Monographs, vol. 9", Gebethner and Wolff Publishing House, Warsaw 1926.

"They [the sky and clouds] were perceived with unprejudiced eyes by the first Stanislawski. He perceived and rendered the changing form of the cloud, the mystery of its movement, the truth of its shape and the truth of its hovering in the air and advancing between the sky and the earth, and raised them to the importance of a dominant in the landscape. [...] The sky is the soul of his landscape, and the clouds its most perfect victory over the mystery of nature," poetically characterized Mieczyslaw Sterling.
In the history of Polish painting, Jan Stanislawski went down in history as an outstanding artist and educator. Being a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and the creator of the so-called school of landscape, he became an educator and master for the next generation of painters (among his students were Abraham Neumann, Stanislaw Galek and Stefan Filipkiewicz). Stanislawski's paintings, usually small in size, are characterized by a depth of lyrical mood. Initially painted realistically, they evolved into impressionistic painting, based on a strongly individual perception of nature. The artist depicted fragments of the landscape. In the foreground he often placed inconspicuous flowers, bodkins or majestic clouds. In this way he argued that the beauty of nature lies in each of its elements. Famous in Stanislavsky's work are landscapes of the vast fields of Ukraine or landscapes with the Dniester River. Painted synthetically, sometimes with a finely guided line, they were imbued with a richness of color and a special sensitivity to light. Stanislavsky appreciated its role in bringing out the color spot.