Zbigniew Pronaszko (1885-1958), ILLUSTRATION TO "BALLADY O SADOWNIKU" EMILA ZEGADŁOWICZ, 1920s

pencil, ink, watercolor, gouache/paper, 34 x 25.5 cm
signed at bottom right in pencil: Z. Pronaszko
bottom left handwritten in ink: "- apple trees and pear trees, prune the heart of the orchard / gazing at the source of its -" / "Ballad of the Fruit Grower"

Zbigniew Pronaszko studied painting from 1906 to 1911 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow under Teodor Axentowicz and Jacek Malczewski. In 1917 he co-founded the avant-garde group Polish Expressionists, whose name the artists changed to Formists in 1919. Around 1925, Pronaszko moved closer to the aesthetics of colorism. He began to use contrasting color combinations, thanks to which his painting gained in intensity.
The featured drawing is an unpublished version of an illustration to Emil Zegadłowicz's "Ballad of the Fruit Grower." The piece was included in the book "Powsinogi beskidzkie", published in 1923. An edition illustrated with colorful woodcuts by Pronaszko came out in 1929. The watercolor composition is much more subtle than the woodcut - a technique of execution associated with folk art. The drawing, on the other hand, attracts with its luminosity and lightness of colors. The representation perfectly captures the idyllic nature of the scene and the atmosphere of the ballad, which mentions the biblical provenance of the idea of the garden: "horticulture a holy thing: - jak Ponbóg świat stworzył pierse se na uciecheek ogród założyć - ano gotonki fajne - haj poro scęśliwa - chodzić se adam z ewą oględować dziwa" ([in:] Emil Zegadłowicz's Dziesięć ballad o powsinogach beskidzkich z drzeworytami barwnemi Zbigniewa Pronaszki, Poznań: Towarzystwo Bibljofilów Polskich, 1929, p. 38).