SCENE AT SUNSET, 1913
Oil on canvas; 86 x 110 cm
Signed lower right: Józef Rapacki 1913
On the upper frame rail: a sticker (stamp, typewritten text): J. Malczewski Museum | Rynek 11 | 26-600 RADOM | tel. (0-48) 36-243-29 | Exhibition title: “Such Beauties” | based on “The Peasants” by Wł. Reymont | Dates: September 2000 – February 2001 | Artist: Józef Rapacki | Title: A Field at Sunset | Private collection
Exhibited and reproduced: 1. Ostoya Auction House, 10th auction, May 21, 2000, lot 17; 2. What a Beauty. Impressions from Władysław Reymont’s *The Peasants*, Jacek Malczewski Museum, Radom, 2001.
A second version of this composition is in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw (“Skiba at Sunset,” pastel on paper, inv. no. 183665 MNW) .In this early work, one can see the artist’s interest in Impressionism, as interpreted through the paintings of Józef Pankiewicz and Władysław Podkowiński, with whom he was familiar. Rapacki frequently returned in his work to the motif of plowed fields or wet roads rutted by wagon wheels, which converge in the distance, fading into the horizon. According to Iwona Szustakiewicz, author of the artist’s catalog, Rapacki “created landscapes according to Witkiewicz’s principles. Engaging directly with nature, he painted it as he saw it, but also as he felt it, expressing his love for his homeland.” (Pastel Masters: From Marteau to Witkacy. Collection of the National Museum in Warsaw, exhibition catalog, scientific editor Anna Grochala, National Museum in Warsaw, Warsaw 2015, p. 372)
