Władysław ŚLEWIŃSKI (1854-1918), Flowers in a vase, circa 1900.

oil on canvas; 50 x 61.5 cm;
On the reverse of the stamp: WŁADYSŁAW ŚLEWIŃSKI / from the legacy / POŚMIERTNEJ and the signature of the artist's wife: E. Ślewińska (in copy pencil).

Provenance:
- Artist's legacy,
- Thierry - Lannon & Associes auction (05/08/21), item 387,
- Private collection, Poland.

The motif of flowers in the painter's work, is an element that unites all periods of the artist's activity. These are not representations of plants from botanical atlases focused on their "anatomy." Ślewiński's flowers - asters, zinnias, poppies, levconias or peonies - are "portrayed" by him in an extremely characteristic way, with a certain degree of synthesis and expression, often in simple clay vases or jugs, against the background of an empty wall, not distracting.
Even Paul Gauguin, portraying the Polish painter, depicted his figure sitting at a table, on which a bouquet of multicolored zinnias, which were Wladyslaw Slewinski's favorite flowers, is delicious. An advocate of depictions of flora was also Jan Kasprowicz, who expressed his admiration for the painter's canvases in the following words: "And the Lord's flowers! These poppies, these anemones, these sunflowers. They are not perfect photographs of reality, which were alive but extinguished the moment they were on the film, they are eternally living individualisms, astonishing not only by their technique, but above all by the melancholy music of the Lord's soul."
(Lit. W. Jaworska, Władysław Ślewiński, [n.m., n.r.], pp. 18-22)