Krakow, portfolio of 10 woodcuts
album-like binding, 41 x 36 cm, woodcuts on tint,
each signed in pencil by the author, on the title page dedication by the author from 1960,
on the pre-title page ex libris in woodcut with space to write the owner,
additionally includes in woodcut by the author's hand a list of works: 1.St. Mary's Church, 2.Barbican, 3.Wawel - cathedral towers,
4.Wawel - Sigismund Chapel, 5.Wawel - castle courtyard, 6.St. Idzi's Church - Wawel, 7.Courtyard of Collegium Maius, 8.Wit Stwosz's altarpiece, 9.18th century portal of 20 Św. Jana Street, 10.St. Barbara Church "Ogrójec".
Stanislaw Raczynski was born in 1903 in Wadowice, died in 1982 in Krakow. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under T. Axentowicz, W. Weiss and Jan Wojnarski. He defended his diploma in 1926. In 1927-1928 he worked as a stage designer at the Popular Theater in Cracow, and for the next two years at the Grand Theater in Poznań. In 1930 he went to Paris on a scholarship from the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment. He supplemented his studies while still in Italy. The artist worked in graphic design, advertising and illustration. Among other things, he made illustrations for Franz Kafka's The Trial and The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais. He also published two portfolios of woodcuts with depictions of Polish architectural monuments.
Stanislaw Raczynski made mostly woodcuts, and was strongly influenced by Wladyslaw Skoczylas. He often took up rural and highland themes, depicting situational portraits of Highlanders or multi-figure genre scenes. He also frequently depicted the aforementioned views of architecture, and less frequently depicted female images and religious subjects. The artist's prints are characterized by decorative stylization.
