Julian Fałat (1853 Tuligłowy - 1929 Bystra), Landscape with a hunter, 1919.

watercolor, paper, 67.5 × 146 cm light frame
signed, description. and date. p. d.: "j.Fałat/Bystra 1919"

"The list of outdoor motifs he reached for is quite large. It is the result not only of curiosity about the world and sensitivity to its qualities, Julian Fałat's fondness for traveling in the 'company' of a paintbrush, a cartridge of paints and some kind of painting ground, but also an expression of his persistent desire to record the power and changeability of landscape forms and the moods of nature." I. Purzycka, "Julian Fałat. Życiorys pędzlem zapisany", Bielsko-Biała 2017, p. 153.

Julian Fałat's works are dominated by two trends - these are landscapes and scenes of hunting. The work presented at the auction combines precisely these two aspects, thanks to which the artist gained fame and recognition. Here, in a vastly depicted landscape, we see a small-sized figure of a hunter with a dog, going for a solitary hike towards the hillsides, towering over the whole scene. The composition impresses with wonderfully chosen bright colors, with which Fałat depicted the awakening nature after the spring melt. The work was executed in watercolor technique, in which Fałat was a true master. "It has long become a cliche that Fałat is the best Polish watercolorist and one of the best contemporary watercolorists. Although Fałat painted equally well in oil paint and pastel: but when painting in watercolor he was most himself, in it he expressed himself most fully [...] From the impressionist watercolor, stylized slightly in the Japanese fashion, Fałat made an obedient tool for himself, with the help of which he captured and recorded everything that imposed itself on his sensitive to colors and shapes mental organization." (M. Wallis, "Julian Fałat," in Literary News, 1929, no. 30, p. 3.)
Hunting scenes became one of the most important subjects in Julian Fałat's work. Individually interpreted, they wowed audiences and critics. (...) Fałat's paintings enjoyed such great popularity probably because hunting and gamekeeping were an important element of Polish noble culture. The artist's hunting compositions were also fascinated by Henryk Sienkiewicz, a bard of Sarmatism. Fałat was not interested in the type of hunting par force, so popular in Polish painting of the 19th century, but rather in the individual reactions of people and the tension that accompanied them. Among the rich set of works, several thematic groups can be distinguished, which he repeatedly depicted: the hunting trip, the chase, the hunters' rest and the return from the hunt. The first compositions were created in 1886 during his stay in Nesvizh, at the famous hunt arranged for Prince William of Prussia. A. Król, Julian Fałat, Stalowa Wola 2010, pp. 54-55 [cat. exhib.]