Dimensions: 95 × 78 cm
Signed p.d.: 'Józef Mehoffer'.
from the collection of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, in MNW since 1942
inv. no. MP 366 MNW
Adoption period: 1 year
Biography
"May Sunshine," or, as the author himself preferred, Weranda in Jankówka, is the work of Jozef Mehoffer as a mature painter, artistically and familially fulfilled.
Purchased by the couple in 1907, the old manor house in Jankówka near Krakow, which the artist rebuilt and decorated according to the spirit of the era into a suburban estate surrounded by a magnificent park and flower garden. The artist depicted a veranda flooded with May sunshine, open with huge windows to a garden full of blooming lilac bushes, where his wife Jadwiga is standing. The woman, gazing toward the garden, gloats at the beauty of nature blooming around her. To enhance the impression of idyllic family happiness, the artist placed a trunk rose in the center of the composition. The intriguing composition with the scaled-down rose tree, samovar and tea cups and proportionally behind the petite silhouette of Mrs. Mehoffer brings to mind Japanese woodcuts, with their different way of shaping space. The sophisticated color arrangements, finesse of lines, and saturation with light make the painting a display of the artist's mastery in depicting a sensual attitude to family life and the beauty of nature.
The artist's dreams of beauty, harmony and happiness were expressed in the paintings created in Jankowka by Józef Mehoffer.
