Jan Styka (1858 Lviv - 1925 Rome), Nude - sketch for the painting "Temptations"

pencil, paper, 24 × 36.5 cm in light passe-partout

Provenance:
Collection of the family of Paul Schlockoff.
Private collection, Poland

The featured work is a study of one of the figures depicted in Jan Styka's painting "Temptations". The sketch depicts a female figure bent in a seductive pose, as if in ecstasy. The subject of the overall oil composition was a popular iconographic motif depicting a scene of Saint Anthony being tempted by evil spirits. Styka painted this painting, dated 1906, while in Paris. A year later, in 1907, the painting was presented and awarded a medal at the Paris Salon. Subsequently, the painting was presented in subsequent years at the Exhibition of Works by Jan, Tadeusz and Adam Styka at the TZSP in Warsaw in 1926 and in the same year at the Municipal Art Gallery in Lodz.
The drawing comes from a legacy of about 100 drawings preserved in the collection of Paul Schlockoff - Adam Styka's closest friend (son of Jan Styka). After emigrating to the United States in the late 1940s, Adam Styka entrusted Paul with the management of his Parisian affairs, the sale of various paintings and also the sale of his apartment at Place Pigalle 5. He also told him about his daily life and members of his family. The fruits of this friendship are the surviving drawings and paintings of both Jan Styka and his sons, as well as a rich correspondence between both Paul Schlockoff and Adam, as well as Wanda and Doris Styka (Tadé's wife). From some sixty letters we learn many details. Adam Styka wrote to Paul about his stay in Arizona in 1948, which changed his work as a painter. As he wrote in the letters: "for 2 months I was with my wife in Arizona, where I painted a lot, I am delighted with the light there, the landscape and especially the cowboys with horses. So that temporarily away from Africa, you could say that I switched to American subjects." Other letters mention the death of his mother (Jan Styka's wife), the potential sale of a painting by Tadé Styka to the Louvre, or the construction of the Crucifixion Hall in California, which is to house a monumental painting by Jan Styka.