Original ink drawing by Wladyslaw Daszewski, unsigned, on sheet 9.7 x 20.9 cm. Good condition: minor creases.
No markings, preliminary sketch, appeared in print in an altered (less impressive) form.
The illustration (after corrections) was reproduced in the satirical weekly "Szpilki", no. 27(677), 4.VII.1954, on page 3, as one of four developed for "Anecdotes" from volume II of "Chronicles" by Bolesław Prus.
Wladyslaw Daszewski (1902-1971) - cartoonist, caricaturist, prominent stage designer. He studied at the Warsaw University of Technology (with S. Noakowski), and then at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. As a cartoonist, he cooperated with numerous magazines (before 1939, "Cyrulik Warszawski", "Wiadomości literackie", "Robotnik", after the war, among others, "Szpilki"), as a stage designer he debuted in 1927, cooperated with Warsaw theaters and cabarets, from 1930 he also designed for theaters in Lvov.
In 1934 he became a professor at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, and continued his teaching work after the war, becoming (in 1964) dean of the newly created Department of Stage Design.