gouache, watercolor, pencil, photographic paper
at bottom edge author's inscription: AULASKIEYOWSIPOWIATWILAASŁO
On the reverse:
- round stamp with portrait of the artist and inscription in the rim: [PA] MIĄTKA Z KRYNI [CY] | NIKIFOR PAINTER
- rectangular stamp with inscription: NIKIFOR THE ARTIST | KRYNICA-WIEŚ, under the seal in pencil: 500 ZŁ 100
- below in black paint: 500 ZŁ
Image described and reproduced:
- Chris Sztyber, My Second World. My Second World. Polish Painting Collection. Polish Painting Collection, p. 132, color ill.
Nikifor (actually Epifaniusz Drowniak, from 1962 Nikifor Krynicki; Krynica ca. 1895 - Krynica 1968) - Lemko, well-known naive painter from Krynica, self-taught. He suffered from hearing and speech disorders, never studied in any school, could not write or read. His true passion and way to communicate with the world was painting. He started painting at an early age - his earliest known works date back to before 1920. He painted in watercolor, using pencil as well. He used every available piece of paper, notebook covers, cigarette packs. He created whole series of pictures - touchingly naive depictions of architecture, landscape, saints' figures, portraits. He often signed his works with incomprehensible strings of "printed" letters and pasted frames of colored paper to them. His work received attention as early as the 1930s (the Capists), but the real discovery of Nikifor's phenomenon came only after the war, when he was cared for and admitted to the ZPAP. In 1962 he was given the name Krynicki. Convinced of the importance of his art, he also used the nickname Matejko.
