Wiktor Zbigniew LANGNER (1906-1985), Krakow devotional pictures

Original binding, cardboard; 35 x 25 cm;
Portfolio of 11 boards with woodcuts hand-colored in watercolor, Cracow, 1942,
An edition of 15 pieces; additionally a board with the author's handwritten dedication to Stefan Mrożewski.
Occupation portfolio, containing 11 woodcuts printed on cards glued to boards, all signed and dated by the author, on 7 woodcuts the artist's monogram on the block "WL".
The engravings depict images of saints, mainly from Cracow churches: the Sorrowful Christ from the Church of the Holy Cross; the Sorrowful Mother of God from the Church of the Franciscans; the Virgin Mary from the Church of the Sand; the Feeding Mother of God; the Rosary Mother of God from the Dominican Church; the Mother of God of Czestochowa; St. Francis and St. Catherine from the Church of the Bernardine Fathers in Radom; St. Francis; the Virgin Mary of the Dawn Gate, the Crucifixion of Christ.
On the front cover pastedown woodcut title and woodcut with depiction of the Crucifixion, on the back cover woodcut artist's mark.
Wiktor Zbigniew Langner (1906-1985), graphic artist and painter from Cracow, outstanding creator of exlibrises, student of W. Jarocki and J. Mehoffer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow and E. Bartłomiejczyk in Warsaw. Langner fought in the September campaign, then in the ranks of the Home Army and the Union of Armed Struggle (ZWZ) in Cracow; in 1946 he was sentenced to death for his activities in WiN (pardoned) and imprisoned until 1956. condition of prints very good. Rare.
Lit.: Maria Grońska, Graphics in books, portfolios and albums, Wroclaw 1994, p. 252, item 358 (dated there: 1943 and information that the portfolio contained 15 graphics).