Stanislaw Debicki, A JEW IN LISIURKA

17.4 x 11.8 cm - watercolor, gouache, pencil, gum Arabic, cardboard 17.4 x 11.8 cm (in light of passe-partout)

Signed l.d.: St. Dębicki

On the back an illegible inscription in pencil.

Provenance: The painting comes from the collection of the heirs of Karol Jakubowski (Lviv 1876 - Lviv 1939), a physician and collector. Jakubowski studied in Lviv at the medical department of the local university and practiced as a doctor there. He primarily collected Polish paintings.

The watercolor on offer is a postcard design. It depicts a Hasidic Jew. The portrayed man wears a shtrajmł - a fur cap (also called a lisiurka). It is mostly worn by Hasidic Jews during Shabbat and holidays.

Jewish themes, along with Hutsul themes, appeared already in the artist's early work, and were also present after the artist's stay in Paris in 1890. Tadeusz Dobrowolski writes about the paintings created at that time: they revealed a minimal dependence on Impressionism (....) and opposed the principled amorphousness of that direction, treating the principle of object truth with true and honest care, also in relation to the countryside and town, typical of the Galician province (T. Dobrowolski, Nowoczesne malarstwo polskie, T. III, published by Ossolineum, Wrocław-Kraków 1960, p. 308).

Stanisław Dębicki (Lubaczów 1866 - Kraków 1924) - painter, draughtsman, illustrator - began his studies in painting with Ch. Griepenkerl at the Vienna Academy (1881-1884), then studied under W. Łuszczkiewicz at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków, then again in Vienna, and in 1884 with A. Wagner at the Academy and privately with P. Nauen in Munich. After returning to Poland, he worked for several years as a teacher at the School of Ceramic Industry in Kolomyja (1886-1890). During this period, he often traveled to nearby Hutsul towns and villages - Delatin, Mikuliczyn, Zabi, Tyszkowce - where he made many sketches and drawing notes. In 1890-1891 he was in Paris and still attended the Académie Colarossi. He later settled permanently in Lviv, from where he moved to Krakow in 1909 to take up the chair of decorative painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. He was a member of the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka", the Viennese "Secession", the Union of Polish Visual Artists and TPSP in Lviv. He painted in oil, watercolor and pastel, creating landscapes and portraits (including many children's portraits) and above all, genre scenes from the lives of Hutsul and Galician Jews. He was involved in decorative painting, illustration and various applied arts, occasionally also stage design and sculpture.
The artist's work was recalled in the only major monographic exhibition held at the Silesian (now National) Museum in Wroclaw in 1966.