Dimensions: 23.5 x 14 cm
Signed monogram p.d.: 'W K.'.
Inscribed on the reverse: 'Kotarbinsky', pencil sketch of the composition and twice repeated stamp of the Roman antiquarian bookstore Ulderico Bossi, on the frame a paper sticker of the same antiquarian bookstore, a sticker described with the number: '903' and two stickers with the numbers: '145098'
Origin
family collection, Italy (according to the owner's knowledge, the work was brought from Poland to Italy before World War I)
Biography
Wilhelm Kotarbinski, cousin of Milosz, painter and draughtsman. He studied at the Warsaw Drawing Class under Raphael Hadziewicz in 1867-71, and from 1872 also at the Academy of St. Luke in Rome. After graduating, he opened his own studio in Rome, where he also gave drawing lessons; his students included Maria Bashkirtsev. He returned from Italy in 1888 and from then on stayed mainly at his own estate Kalsk (or Kulsk) in Belarus. From there, he made numerous trips to Kiev, where he had a studio at the Prague Hotel. He participated in exhibitions of the Kiev Art Society, and in 1893 co-founded the Society of Kiev Painters. Together with Pavel Sverdomsky, Mikhail Nesterov and Mikhail Vrubel, he worked on the fresco decoration of Kiev's St. Vladimir's Cathedral (completed in 1894-95). He was the author of decorative plafonds and wall paintings in Mykola Tereshchenko's house and Bohdan Khanenko's palace in Kiev, as well as in the salons of palaces in St. Petersburg and Moscow, among others. He painted primarily compositions with biblical themes, as well as genre scenes inspired by Greco-Roman antiquity. He also created fantasy scenes of a symbolic nature.
