Dimensions: 46 x 40 cm
Signed l.d.: 'Z. STRYJENSKA'
Provenance
collection of the Woydatt family (according to family transmission, friends of Zofia Stryjeńska), Poland-UK
family collection of heirs, Portugal
Literature
compare: Zofia Stryjeńska 1891-1976, exhibition catalog, National Museum in Cracow, ed. Światosław Lenartowicz, Cracow 2008, p.335 (il.), cat. no. III.I.128
Biography
One of the most prominent Polish artists of the 1st half of the 20th century. She was the wife of the architect and sculptor Karol Stryjeński. In 1909 she began her studies at Maria Niedzielska's painting school for women. In 1911, disguised as a boy, as Tadeusz Grzymała, she began studying painting in Munich (at that time women were not admitted to the academy there). After a year, recognized by her classmates, she left Munich and returned to Cracow. In 1918 she joined the Cracow Workshops as a toy designer and author of graphic tees. From 1921 to 1927 she lived in Zakopane, where her husband worked as director of the Wood Industry School. After their divorce in 1927, she moved to Warsaw. In 1938 she received several commissions from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including a kilim for Emperor Hirohito of Japan. She took part in decorating the interiors of Polish passenger ships: "Batory" and "Piłsudski". She also made frescoes in the Technical and Industrial Museum in Cracow (1917), polychromy of the halls in the Senator's Tower on Wawel Hill (1917) and interior decorations of the Fukier Winery in Warsaw. As a member of the Association of Polish Artists Rhythm (since 1922), she participated in the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1925, decorating the main hall of the Polish pavilion designed by J. Czajkowski with six panneaux depicting the Ceremonial Year in Poland. Individual presentations of Stryjeńska's work were held at Warsaw's Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts (1919, 1926), Paris' Galerie Crillon (1921), London's New Art Salon (1927), Lviv's Museum of Art Industry (1932) and Warsaw's Institute of Art Propaganda (1935), among others. Abroad, the artist exhibited her works at the Venice Biennale (1920, 1930, 1932) and at exhibitions organized in 1927-39 by the Society for the Propagation of Polish Art Among Foreigners. In 1929 she received a grand gold medal for book illustrations at the General National Exhibition in Poznań, and in 1932 she won a gold medal at the 18th Venice Biennale. During the period of Stryjeńska's greatest popularity, her works were distributed in the form of volumes, albums and postcards by the Jakub Mortkowicz publishing house, which published, among others, "Polish Dances," "Pascha. Song of the Resurrection", "Piasts" and "Polish Rituals".
