Julian Fałat (1853 Tuligłowy - 1929 Bystra), Winter landscape from Bystra, 1917.

watercolor, gouache, paper, 53 × 87.5 cm in light frame
signed, dated and described p. d.: "J Fałat/Bystra 1917"

"We are having a wonderful winter at the moment. It has been snowing all night and the landscape is getting gorgeous and you only have to wait for the first ray of sun to paint."
Letter from J. Fałat to his daughter, October 12, 1927, MBB/H-FJ/1350

Fałat's winter landscapes were highly acclaimed by the public. They were rated higher by critics than the works of Norwegian artists, who were so far considered masters of this genre (T. Dudek Bujarek, Julian Fałat - życiorys pędzlem zapisany, Bielsko-Biała 2017, p. 161). Everyone in the capital wanted to have Fałat's snows. Fałat received letters urging him on the matter, which read: "Almost every buyer wants to have "Snow" and only snow, to everyone I promise and note to myself, and here the snows are not there and you can't see them, so now I'm very much asking Dear Sir, something necessarily send me by mail" (Letter from J. Woloszynska to J. Falat, February 15, 1914, MBB/H-FJ/1498). The artist himself considered the winter landscape a highly graceful subject, and with sincere delight described his impressions in his correspondence to his daughter.