Jacek Malczewski, Portrait of Kazimierz Pochwalski, 1914-1915

92.0 x 117.0cm - oil, canvas signed p.d.: J. Malczewski | 1914-1915.



On the reverse:

- on the upper loom strip, exhibition sticker of the District Museum in Sandomierz: Exhibition Jacek & Rafał Malczewski | District Museum in Sandomierz | 17 March - 31 July 2012;

- next to the sticker with the number (in pen): 1136/2008;

- next to the exhibition sticker: Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929) | Portrait of Kazimierz Pochwalski, | 1914-1915 | JACK MALCZEWSKI MUSEUM | IN RADOM | Exhibition: Jacek and Rafał Malczewski | 25.03.2011 - 4.09.2011;

- next to a sticker with the deposit number of the Tatra Museum in Zakopane, written in marker, where the painting was stored between 1997 and 2000: Dep S/1112/MT.

Also:

- on the crossbar of the loom the number (in black paint): .1.;

- below, a faintly legible stamp of Alois Ebeseder's painting supplies store in Vienna: A[...]der | Wien | I. Opernring 9..;

- on the lower strip of the loom, the deposit number of the Silesian Museum in Katowice (in white paint): WSC/dep.1304/SzM.



Painting exhibited, reproduced and described, among others, in:

- Catalog of the Exhibition of Works of Art "Polish Legions. Exhibition "Polish Legions" arranged through the efforts of the Supreme National Committee under the chairmanship of Prof. Jerzy Mycielski in March and April 1916, Kraków 1916, p. 22, cat. no. 222 (Portrait of Prof. Kazimierz Pochwalski; Vienna 1915);

- J. Remer, Legions in Art. Exhibition at the Palace of Fine Arts in Cracow 1916, Cracow 1916, pp. 22, 24-25;

- W. Wyganowska, Krytycy wobec tematyki legionowej Jacka Malczewskiego, "Biuletyn Historii Sztuki", 1994, R. LVI, no. 1-2, pp. 43-55, (about the portrait of K. Pochwalskiegona p. 51), il. 4 on p. 46;

- W. Wyganowska, Sztuka Legionów Polskich 1914-1918, Wyd. Neriton, Warsaw 1994, pp. 75, 122, il. 67;

- D. Kudelska, Dukt pisma i pędzla. Intellectual Biography of Jacek Malczewski, Wydawnictwo KUL, Lublin 2008, p. 543 (mentioned);

- Jacek and Rafał Malczewski, Jacek Malczewski Museum in Radom from 25 March to 4 September 2011;

- Jacek and Rafał Malczewski, National Museum in Gdansk, Green Gate Branch from Oct. 15, 2011 to Feb. 26, 2012;

- Jacek and Rafał Malczewski, District Museum in Sandomierz from March 17 to July 31, 2012;

- Jacek and Rafał Malczewscy, scholarly editor Zofia Katarzyna Posiadała, Radom 2014, pp. 212-213, il;

- Jacek Malczewski. Contexts, Jacek Malczewski Museum in Radom 20 IX 2024 - 5 I 2025;

- P. Szymalak-Bugajska, Jacek Malczewski. Contexts, Radom 2024, p. 271, il. 195.





The portrait of Kazimierz Pochwalski (1855-1940), a painter, his peer and friend since his studies in Cracow and Munich, was painted by Malczewski in Vienna, where in 1914-1915 he used his kindly lent studio at the Academy of Fine Arts at Schiller Platz. In their youth, the two artists portrayed each other (1879; Lviv Picture Gallery); years later, Malczewski painted Pochwalski again, already a mature man, an artist, focused on transferring his painting vision to canvas. The painting is an expression of the feelings and anxieties accompanying both artists in the first years of the world war. In 1916, Pochwalski's portrait was shown at the "Polish Legions" exhibition in Cracow and was extensively described by Jerzy Remer at the time. This text, although today it may seem full of excessive pathos, is nevertheless a testimony to the understanding of the idea and the intensity of emotions accompanying the reception of the work, created and viewed at a special moment in history.

The reviewer writes of waves of troops spilling over a wide plain. In front, the iron wall of the Polish soldier - the Legions. Dobosze are beating drums, (...) the ground seems to tremble under the feet of thousands of warriors, pushing forward to battle in some powerful rhythm of march. (...) On the right and left the unfurled banners, among which the yellow-black-red allied troops are colored. And the armies of the living come in succor of the army of unearthly avengers. From the vapors of the panting earth rise the blue goddesses of vengeance, the Valkyries and the spirits of fallen heroes, and just behind the Legions the goddesses of victory, with a red flag with a white eagle, command the knightly hordes to fight to the death. In the foreground is a bust of painter Prof. Kazimierz Pochwalski, in national black dress. The sumptuously sculpted head of silver hair is bent forward by the painter, and an image arises in his eyes (...): Legions going into battle. With one hand he grasps the palette, with the other he squeezes the paint - carmine - from the tube. For the deed will come true and the bloody drama of the battle will be fulfilled and blood will sprinkle abundantly on the field of glory and fame. From afar already come the inseparable companions of war, flocks of crows and ravens. However, this does not sully the painter's forehead (...), on the contrary, his manly, fortified countenance shines with pride that the sons are following the trail of their fathers. A stringy, worked-out hand clutches his painting work with a kind of priestly dignity (...). This is the bizarre realm of Malczewski's art (...), the mystery of the inner life of the nation is expressed in these paintings-poems.



In later years, the painting was recalled several times in the context of the art of the Polish Legions (see studies by W. Wyganowska). In the Iconographic and Photographic Collections of the National Museums in Warsaw and Cracow there are old photographs of the Portrait of Kazimierz Pochwalski taken at the Cracow photographic establishments - Antoni Pawlikowski (MNW) and Amalia Krieger (MNK - see opposite).



Jacek Malczewski (Radom 1854 - Krakow 1929) - a prominent representative of Polish modernism painting, began his artistic studies at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow, where in 1872-1875 he studied under Feliks Szynalewski, Władysław Łuszczkiewicz and Jan Matejko, whose studio he attended again in 1877-1879. Then he studied at the Paris École des Beaux Arts under E. Lehmann (1876-1877).

In 1880, he traveled to Italy. In 1884-1885, he took part - as a draughtsman - in Karol Lanckoroński's scientific expedition to Pamphylia and Pisidia in Little Asia. At that time he was also in Greece and Italy. In 1885-1886 he stayed in Munich for several months. Upon his return, he settled permanently in Cracow, from where he made further trips to Munich and Italy. In 1896-1900 he taught at the Cracow School of Fine Arts, and from 1911-1922 he was a professor and twice rector of the Cracow Academy. He spent the years 1914-1915 in Vienna and returned to Krakow in 1916. In the last years of his life he stayed mainly in Luslawice and Charzewice near Zakliczyn. He was a co-founder of the Society of Polish Artists "Art" (1897) and a member of the "Zero" group (1908).
In his early period, he painted portraits, genre scenes and - above all - paintings with themes related to the martyrdom of Poles after the January Uprising (Death of Ellenai, Sunday in the Mine, On the Stage, Christmas Eve in Siberia). Later, from the 1890s, he created paintings with symbolic content with intermingled patriotic, biblical, fairy-tale, literary and allegorical-fantastic themes.