oil, cardboard glued on cardboard
Dimensions: 68.5 cm x 97.3 cm
Signed p.g.: J Malczewski | 1918
on the reverse: 1996 Agra-Art sticker.
Image reproduced and mentioned in:
- D. Kudelska, Dukt pisma i pędzla. Intellectual Biography of Jacek Malczewski, Wyd. KUL, Lublin 2008, p. 191;
- S. Krzysztofowicz-Kozakowska, Jacek Malczewski. Życie i twórczość, Kluszczyński Publishers, Kraków 2008, p. 36, il;
- Jacek and Rafał Malczewscy, scholarly editor Z.K. Posiadała, Radom 2014, p. 218, il.
What would Jacek Malczewski's painting have been like if Maria Kinga Balowa had not appeared in his life? The future lovers met around 1900.Malczewski was 46 years old at the time, while Maria was 25 years younger than him. The beautiful, red-haired woman, who was Jack Malczewski's great extramarital love for many years, became not only an aesthetic inspiration in the creation of individual works, but also caused huge formal changes in the artist's painting. More light and color appeared in his works, and the painter's canvases increasingly began to be populated by mythical jellyfish, harpies or chimeras, bearing the features of his beloved woman," writes Paulina Szymalak-Bugalska (My Soul. The faces of women in the works of Jacek Malczewski, Radom 2019, p. 147).
Their separation in November 1913 was one of the most tragic moments in Malczewski's life. Although it most likely occurred on the initiative of Balowa, the artist felt guilty for ending a relationship they both considered special. A poignant testimony to this event," writes Dorota Kudelska, "are Malczewski's poems, most likely written immediately after the conversation and for many months afterwards, as well as his reflections noted down after several years. They paint a picture of the artist's changing feelings: from stunned by the pain, through successive attempts to rationalize the events, to save his inner self, his "deepest self," as he wrote, to the conviction that the suffering with which one must come to terms is a passage to the next, higher circle of refinement of the spirit (D. Kudelska, op. cit. p. 175).
These experiences also became the impetus for the painting series Orpheus and Eurydice, which consists of just a few works created in 1914-1921. Malczewski here drew on the Greek myth of the Thracian singer and poet, who was able to enchant plants, animals and rocks with his playing. When his wife Eurydice was daringly bitten by a snake, Orpheus descended into Hades. Having found his beloved among the dead, he charmed the entire Underworld with his music and obtained permission from the gods to bring her out of the world of the dead. After all, there was one condition: Orpheus was to go first and not look back until he exited the Underworld. So here we see: the painter's love - Eurydice, led by Hermes, calling Charon, who is already crossing the border Styx, and Orpheus - Jack, who, having succumbed to the temptation to look at his beloved, with a dramatic gesture unveils the hem of his chinchilla, which is a metaphor for the artist's social constraints and at the same time internal imperfections. His horrified look, aware of his broken promise, is tantamount to losing her forever. Eurydice, still immersed in blissful Lethian unconsciousness, will return with Hermes to the land of the dead, remaining only in the memories of her beloved. Orpheus, on the other hand, the singer and prophet, will return to earth. Paradoxically, the hero's defeat serves his victory," writes Dorota Kudelska (p. 208).
The story of love stronger than death is also read as a metaphor for the patriotic mission. The soldier - Orpheus leads Eurydice - Polonia out of the world of the dead, while they are accompanied by a guide - the messenger of the gods Hermes. Hence the motif of Orpheus and Eurydice is included in the larger cycle Polonia, which is a metaphor for the liberation of Poland.
After parting with Maria Balowa, other models began to appear on Malczewski's canvases. One of them was Maria née Wozniak Sozanska (1865-1943), who posed for the figure of Eurydice from the offered composition. A beautiful woman, the wife of painter and illustrator Michal Sozansky (1853-1923), she probably reminded the artist of his lost beloved with her beauty.
