Signature p.d.: Mondzain. | 1961.
On the reverse (in pencil): Mondzain | 5 rue Campagne - [Premiere Paris]; on the crosspiece of the loom, stickers of the auction house in Warsaw; also on the right loom strip (in black crayon): Fleurs No 3.
♣ to the auctioned price, in addition to other costs, will be added a fee based on the right of the creator and his heirs to receive remuneration in accordance with the Law of February 4, 1994 - on Copyright and Related Rights (droit de suite)
Szymon Mondzain (Chelm 1888 - Paris 1979) - owner of Szamaj Mondszajn - painter, representative of the so-called École de Paris; began his painting studies at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1905 and in the same year - for participation in a school strike - was arrested and imprisoned in the Citadel. In 1908, with the help of the Jewish Community, he left for Cracow, where he took up studies at the Academy of Fine Arts under Teodor Axentowicz and Jozef Pankiewicz. At that time he became friends with Mojżesz Kisling, Wacław Zawadowski and Jan Hrynkowski. In 1909 and 1911 he traveled to Paris, and at the end of 1912 settled there permanently, entering the circle of Montparnasse artists and becoming friends with André Derain, Guillaume Apollinaire, André Salmon, among others. In 1913 he traveled to Switzerland and Brittany. During World War I, he served as a volunteer in the Polish-French units of the Foreign Legion. In 1923 he received French citizenship. He traveled to Italy for plein air trips (1923) and, from 1925, regularly to Algeria, where he also spent the years of World War II and where he later - with a break in Paris - stayed permanently. In 1965 he returned to Paris permanently and took up his former studio in Rue Campaigne Première in Montparnasse. Active in the French-Polish art community, he repeatedly presented his works at the Salon Indépendants (from 1911), Salon d'Automne (from 1913) and Salon des Tuileries (from 1923). He also participated in other Parisian exhibitions, and also took part in exhibitions of Polish art in Paris (1920, 1929, 1935), Pittsburgh (19234), and New York (1933). He also had a number of solo exhibitions in Paris (1922, 1923, 1931, 1926, 1927, 1934, 1937, 1946, 1950), Chicago (1920), New York (1933), Oran (1943), Algiers (1948). A posthumous exhibition of the artist's paintings was held at the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provance in 1983.
The earlier phase of Mondzain's oeuvre is dominated by landscapes and still lifes, revealing clear influences of Paul Cezanne's art. Later, he also painted geometrized compositions inspired by the paintings of A. Deraine. In 1917 he made "Diabolic Caprices," a series of gouaches with erotic themes. He also created allegorical-symbolic compositions with dark color tones ("Pro Patria", a painting dedicated to fallen soldiers). After World War I, he painted portraits and figural scenes maintained in lighter colors and stylized after the model of Italian quattrocento painting. After 1925, i.e., since his constant trips to Algeria, his work is dominated by landscapes, portraits, still lifes and genre scenes with Arabic motifs, paintings with precise drawing, vivid colors and decorative treatment.
Note: Mondzain's birth date is given after: E. Grabska, "Simon Mondzain," in Paris and Polish Artists around E.-A. Bourdelle", Catalogue of the MNW, Warsaw 1997, p. 126. In the literature on the artist, the dates 1887 or 1890 are also encountered.
