Włodzimierz Tetmajer (1862 Harklowa - 1923 Kraków), Pan Twardowski, ca. 1915-1917

oil, canvas, 96 × 128 cm light frame
Signed l. d.: "Włodzimierz Tetmajer"

"They eat, they drink, they smoke sticks,
Dancing, hooting, swaggering;
They hardly wreck the inn,
Cha cha, chi chi, heyza, hola!
Twardowski sat down at the end of the table.
He propped himself up in his sides like a basha;
"Hulaj dusza! Hulaj! " - he calls out,
He laughs, tantalizes, frightens. (...)
Then as he drank vodka from the cup.
The chalice wheezed, clattered;
He looked at the bottom: What on earth?
Why did you come here, buddy?
The devil was in the vodka at the bottom,
A veritable German, a trick of the temptation;
He bowed to the guests stackedly,
He took off his hat and gave a shout.
From the cup all the way to the floor
Falls, grows two elbows,
Nose like a hook, chicken leg
And sparrowhawk-like nails.
"A! Twardowski; welcome, brother!"
This saying he runs obsequiously:
"Well, do you not know me?
I am Mephistopheles. (...) "
Adam Mickiewicz, "Mrs. Twardowska"

"Bit by bit, the young painters fled to the countryside, to Bronowice, where Włodzimierz Tetmajer, wedded to the "King of Piast," had been sitting for several years. During the day they would paint, in the evenings they would gather at Wlodzimierz's house or at the inn for 'kurdesz'; it was sometimes cheerful there." Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński "Znasz-li ten kraj? (Cyganerja Krakowska) ", Warsaw 1932, p. 48.
According to legend, Jan Twardowski was a nobleman living in Krakow in the 16th century. He sold his soul to the devil in exchange for receiving great knowledge and knowledge of magic. However, he was supposed to outwit the devil on this occasion, and to the cypher signed with him, he added a provision stating that the devil could only take the nobleman's soul to hell in Rome, where he did not plan to go at all. With the help of the power witch Twardowski gained wealth, fame and magical skills, which he used to help people. After many years, in the inn of Rome, the devil finally catches up with Twardowski. Here again the legendary nobleman showed his cunning and managed to evade the devil's urges. The legend of Mr. Twardowski inspired many artists to create works dedicated to him.
Probably the best known is Adam Mickiewicz's ballad titled "Pani Twardowska," dating from 1820. In 1840, Jozef Ignacy Kraszewski wrote the novel "Master Twardowski," and in 1906. Lucjan Rydel a ballad of the same title. Tetmajer himself, decorated the entire frieze of the hall of the Hawełka restaurant in the Spiski Palace on the Main Square in Krakow with the legend of Master Twardowski.
The painting presented at the auction is one of the most interesting and colorful in Włodzimierz Tetmajer's oeuvre. Here the artist combined a popular legend with a touch of the splendor of the 16th-century Republic and a folk motif, and trimmed it with the characteristic Young Poland rush and whirlwind in which the scene takes place and the sensual nudity of the foreground girl. "Pan Twardowski", thanks to these treatments, is undoubtedly a masterpiece of Young Poland art.