Dimensions: 45 x 61 cm
signed with bound monogram and dated l.d.: 'SW | 1902'
other titles: Portrait of Miss Wanda Nowakówna, Girl leaning against a table with a zinnia flower, Girl with roses
stamps of an art conservator on the reverse, on the back of the frame a fragmentarily preserved paper inventory sticker described in pen: 'Julian Nowak | (...) No. 5 | (...) | ego 4'.
Origins
from the collection of Julian Nowak (1865-1946), physician and politician, minister and prime minister of the Second Republic, patron of Stanislaw Wyspianski, Cracow
private collection, Warsaw
Exhibited
Stanisław Wyspiański. On the Fortieth Anniversary of his Death, exhibition catalog, Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Cracow, 1947
Literature
Zdzisław Kępiński, Stanisław Wyspiański, Warsaw 1984, p. 205, ill. no. 147
Helena Blum, Stanisław Wyspiański, Warsaw 1969, cat. no. 100 (ill. on separate sheet)
Stanisław Wyspiański. On the Fortieth Anniversary of his Death, exhibition catalog, Society of Friends of Fine Arts, Cracow 1947, cat. no. 62, p. 11.
Stanisław Wyspiański. Paintings, text by Stanisław Przybyszewski and Tadeusz Żuk-Skarszewski, index compiled by. Stanislaw Swierz, Bydgoszcz 1925, cat. no. 397, p. 53 (ill.)
Biography
Playwright, poet, painter and theater reformer. In 1884-85 and 1887-95 he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow (he was, among others, a student and collaborator of Jan Matejko) and at the Jagiellonian University. In 1890-94 he spent time abroad, mainly in Paris, where he was influenced by the art of Paul Gauguin, the Nabists and Japanese woodcut. In 1898-98 he was the graphic manager of the Cracow magazine "Life." In 1898-1905, among other things, he was active as a stage-manager at the Cracow theater. In 1906 he became a docent at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow. From 1897 he was a member of the Art Society. Stanislaw Wyspianski's favorite technique was pastel. He was also involved in graphic design (including illustrations for The Iliad, vignettes and layouts for the Cracow weekly "Life" and his own published dramas). An important place in his work, which began with his collaboration with Jan Matejko and Jozef Mehoffer on the polychrome of St. Mary's Church, was occupied by designs for stained glass and interior polychromes: for example, in the Franciscan Church in Cracow 1897-1905, in the Lviv Cathedral 1892-94 and in the Wawel Cathedral 1900-02 (not completed). Wyspianski's artistic output was dominated by portraiture, in the field of which he represented Expressionism (e.g., portraits of Kazimierz Lewandowski and Lucjan Rydel 1898) and landscape (e.g., a series of views of Kopiec Kościuszki 1904-05). Wyspiański developed stage designs for his own dramas, designs for interior decoration (e.g., of the Medical Society in Cracow), furniture and textiles, and architectural designs. He was one of the creators of the program and practice of so-called applied art in Poland, and a reformer of book graphics. His style shows both the lasting influence of Matejko, as well as vivid connections with Art Nouveau (decorativeness, characteristic flexible and whimsical lines, floral styling) and the influence of Impressionism.
