Jozef Mehoffer, UNPROFIT, 1893

33.0 x 28.0cm - crayon, paper Signed at bottom: Anxiety Paris painting

Inscribed on the reverse at the bottom: Paris 3 1893 | Study for the painting "Anxiety" | according to this book cover; above left: div. 209 catal. 194 [...].



Provenance:

- Before 2004 collection of Richard Mehoffer, grandson of the artist.

- After 2016 private collection, Greater Poland.


The presented sketch is undoubtedly a collector's rarity. For it constitutes a study for one of Mehoffer's most important paintings from his youthful creative period, now lost. The work is described by Marta Smolińska-Byczuk: The surviving drawing study for Anxiety depicts a bust of a woman, wrapped in a black cloak and gazing intensely at the viewer. The view of the huddled figure slightly from above heightens the impression of the ambiguity of the drawing's protagonist's features - she seems both lost and terrified, but at the same time dangerous, ready to attack. The viewer of the study is given by the woman's anxiety, emanating from her pose and the gaze of her large eyes, staring from under her furrowed brows. Despite the absence of any attributes or objects to circumscribe the figure, her characterization is carried out very expressively thanks to the features inscribed in the way she appears on the paper and the body language depicted. Mehoffer is looking for a painterly vocabulary capable of meeting the reflection of mental moods, close to borderline states; he focuses on the face, looking for the right expression for the feeling of anxiety. Supporting the chin with the palm of the hand and placing this peculiar construction on the vertical axis of the painting exposes the woman's physiognomy, and focuses the viewer's attention on the face full of tension (M. Smolinska-Byczuk, op. cit., pp. 200-201).



The offered study was also used to develop a graphic design - the design of the cover of the volume of poetry by Malwina Garfeinowa-Garska (pseud. Maria Zabojecka) Dusza (published by Gebethner and Co., Krakow 1898).



Bibliography:

- Helena d'Abancourt de Franqueville, Jozef Mehoffer's book graphics against the background of contemporary currents, Krakow 1929, p. 48;

- Marta Smolińska-Byczuk, Young Mehoffer, published by Universitas, Kraków 2004, pp. 200-201, il. 132 (mentioned and reproduced).

Józef Mehoffer (Ropczyce 1869-Wadowice 1946) - painter, graphic artist, stage designer and educator; next to Stanisław Wyspiański, he was the most prominent Polish creator of stained glass and polychromy. A student of Jan Matejko and the Paris universities - Ecolé des Beaux Arts and Accadémie Colarossi - he began his creative path in 1889-1891 with work on the polychrome of St. Mary's Church in Cracow (under Matejko's direction). In 1895, he was awarded first prize in an international competition for stained glass windows for the collegiate church in Fribourg, Switzerland (their realization lasted until 1934). In the following years, he received various other commissions for stained glass and polychromes, including for the Wawel and Plock cathedrals, the Armenian cathedral in Lvov, churches in Opava, Onnes in Switzerland, Jutrosin, Wloclawek or Przemyśl (not all completed). He was an outstanding representative of Art Nouveau. He created decoratively treated portraits, including self-portraits and portraits of his wife, as well as paintings with genre overtones, which in 1895-1917 gained the meaning of symbolic compositions. He also painted landscapes combining Art Nouveau decorativeness with the achievements of Impressionism. With masterful mastery of various techniques - oil, tempera, watercolor and gouache - he also worked in printmaking. The last major exhibition of the artist's works, entitled Opus magnum, was held in 2000 at the National Museum in Cracow.