oil, cardboard; 69 x 46.5 cm (light framed);
Signed l. g.: Rafał Malczewski.
PROVENANCE:
- private collection, Warsaw,
- purchase on the antiquarian market in Kraków, 2013.
Raphael Malczewski received his education at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He was the son of Jacek Malczewski, who was repeatedly portrayed both as a young boy and as an adult. Probably, growing up in the home of the eminent symbolist painter, he gained as much valuable experience in the field of fine arts as in the academy. From 1917 to 1939, he lived in the Tatra resort of Zakopane, which was frequented by the artistic bohemia that included Leon Chwistek, Witkacy and Zofia Stryjeńska, as well as the cultural elite of the interwar period. Zakopane also became a mecca for not only winter sports, but also an ideal place for hikers. Rafal Malczewski was an avid mountaineer and skied. So it is not surprising that the artist immortalized the mountain landscape in his oils and watercolors. The theme of the Tatra landscape overlooking the Morskie Oko Lake was also taken up by other artists such as Jan Nepomucen Glowacki, Wladyslaw Slewinski, Leon Wyczolkowski, Wladyslaw Serafin and Michal Stanko. Since 1923, the artist has participated in exhibitions of the "Podhale Art" artists' association, and since the early 1930s he has run a "Watercolor Company," thus referring to Witkacy, who ran a "Portrait Company."
