Władysław ZAKRZEWSKI, CASTLE IN CARCASSONNE

Watercolor, gouache, paper, 17 x 25 cm illus. p-p., not signed; 2 stickers: from an exhibition at the TPSP in Kraków, 1938, and from a posthumous exhibition there, 1947, item 107 (possibly 106 or 108?).

Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under W. Jarocki and J. Pankiewicz from 1922-24 and supplemented his studies at private painting academies in Paris. He visited Constantinople, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Italy. Upon his return, he became a pupil of Jan Wojnarski, and from the 1930s he worked exclusively in printmaking (copperplate, etching, aquatint, soft varnish). The most common subject matter of his works was the architecture of Polish cities, seaside and Silesian landscapes. He made a number of thematic series: Teka Śląska, Teka Morska, Warsaw, Lviv, Bielsko, Zaolzie, Krakow; he is also the author of many ex-librises. During World War II, he was a soldier of the Home Army (alias "Jacek"). He produced copperplate engravings of forged documents. Murdered by a Nazi street patrol. A posthumous exhibition was organized for him at TPSP in Cracow in 1947.