oil, duplicated canvas
Dimensions: 73.5 x 49 cm
Signed l.d.: Czachórski
Provenance:
Private collection, United States.
Compare with:
- Władysław Czachórski, Dama, "Tygodnik Ilustrowany", no. 364, December 21, 1889, p. 401;
- Wladyslaw Czachórski, In anticipation, "Tygodnik Ilustrowany," No. 22, June 3, 1911, p. 425.
Wladyslaw Czachórski created primarily in Munich and the vast majority of his works ended up in the hands of Western European and American collectors. The presented Lady with a Book is one such painting. A twin similar composition, known from reproductions in the Illustrated Weekly titled Lady or In Waiting, is dated 1886. According to Henryk Piatkowski, Czachórski's first biographer, the painting, titled Expectation in 1886, was purchased from the artist by Munich's Wimmer Gallery. There are known cases of Czachórski duplicating his compositions. An example is the story described by Waclaw Jaroszyński in Wladyslaw Czachórski's Life and Affairs based on the artist' s Diary. In 1881, Czachórski painted two paintings for New York, one of which so pleased the Munich art dealer Kaesser that he asked the artist for a replica. The slight differences between our Lady with a Book and In Waiting, reproduced in the Illustrated Weekly, suggest a similar situation.
Unfortunately, we do not know when exactly the painting arrived in the United States. Given the fact that the artist fulfilled both commissions for galleries and sold his works directly, it is likely that the painting went overseas, directly into the hands of a collector, shortly after it was painted. The aforementioned Czachórski stopped keeping hisdiary in August 1881, making it significantly more difficult to trace the history of paintings painted later.
A clue to the approximate dating of our work is provided by the painting itself. Dr. Anna Straszewska, author of The Role of Historical Costume in the Paintings of Wladyslaw Czachórski, points out that it is possible to date the artist's works based on the dresses appearing on individual canvases. The first creation used by the painter in salon scenes was a white satin gown a la van Dyck. It is known from the excellent composition Do You Want a Rose? from 1879 (see opposite, Agra-Art auction March 2021). The second, horizontal version of this composition received incredible attention from the audience of the All-World Art Exhibition held in Munich in July 1879. The admiration with which this canvas was received led the artist to devote himself to creating beautiful boudoir scenes full of splendor and luxury.
In 1885, the first change of dress took place. The outfit a la van Dyck was replaced by a costume inspired by paintings of the third quarter of the 17th century. Dr. Straszewska describes it as a white satin gown with a bodice ending in a pointed hem and a large revealing neckline. From under the short buff sleeves, the delicate elbow-length shirt sleeves are visible, wrinkled and trimmed with a lace ruffle. The edge of the neckline, decorated with a brooch in the center, is also trimmed with lace. The artist observed in seventeenth-century portraits the characteristic cut of the bra with a seam running through the center and two seams running diagonally from the tip of the neckline toward the shoulders, forming a characteristic triangle in front. However, since the bra was not stiffened with whalebones and a stiff wooden bricolage running through the center, it models the figure more softly, in accordance with the 1880s canon of feminine beauty. The skirt, which was arranged in pleats at the sides, was decorated in accordance with the fashion of the third quarter of the 17th century with two vertical strips of lace (but white, not metal) at the front and the same stripe along the hem. Usually, however, when the skirt was decorated with metal lace or haberdashery, the seams on the front of the bodice and on the sleeves were also trimmed with it. The color of the gown also diverged from 17th century fashion - white satin with a silvery gray hue was preferred then, rather than écru. This dress appeared in Czachórski's works until 1888, when the artist commissioned a more refined version. From then on, the white creation became a complementary costume in elaborate scenes (see below: Wedding Gift, 1890 - Agra-Art auction , December 2015). According to Dr. Straszewska's research, we can date our canvas to between 1885 and 1888. However, given that there is a known black and white reproduction (see below: In Waiting, 1886) of an extremely similar composition dated by Czachórski in 1886, we should assume a similar dating of our work.
Lady with a Book is an excellent example of the mastery Czachórski achieved in realist painting. He was able to render exquisite fabrics, flowers and jewelry with great care and attention to the smallest details. Our beautiful young lady has been seated by the artist in an armchair right next to the open window, through which she gazes longingly, having taken a break from reading for a while. On the wall behind her back we see an extremely decorative floral tapestry embroidered in gold thread on a burgundy background, as well as a reflective satin curtain. In addition to the ornate fabrics, the painter placed next to the model, an exquisitely chiseled bronze vase containing abundantly blooming pink azaleas. Czachórski received his first azaleas from Jozef Brandt's wife in 1879 and immediately placed them on the aforementioned landmark canvas - Do You Want a Rose? Since then, flowers have become one of the most important decorative elements, along with rich fabrics, trinkets and jewelry, whose realism the artist rendered in a truly masterful way.
The artist's craftsmanship, luxury and splendor portrayed by Wladyslaw Czachórski became the hallmark of his canvases, which were sought by art dealers and collectors. A contemporary art critic, the author of the first biography of the painter and his colleague Henryk Piatkowski wrote about the artist's work with great appreciation:
In the plethora of stars that shone on the horizon of Polish art in the last few decades of the last century and gilded with their splendor this wonderful period of its development, Czachórski's name will remain in the forefront as a high expression of technical painting culture and professional excellence. Endowed with great innate talent, Czachórski is able to sublimate this talent with acquired knowledge and bring it to the stage of mastery. A feature of this talent was the striving for continuous improvement of the inner gift of painting and a kind of seasoned objectivity in treating reality, which allowed him to create more and more interesting works of art.
(...) In time, he assumed a position of such prominence that his works, paid for at a premium by amateurs and collectors, competed victoriously with works by artists of such stature as Florent Willems and Alfred Stevens. (...) Each new work by Czachórski, came out of his Munich studio, was surrounded by the halo accorded to masterpieces. Most of them, passing immediately into the hands of purchasers, were not exhibited (...) His works will become even more valuable with the passing years, as the flare of actuality will be wiped off them, and they will instead acquire a museum patina. Then they will show themselves in the full light of their essential value and will last as a symptom of the peculiar mastery of a great artist. (H. Piątkowski, Władysław Czachórski, Artistic Monographs, T. XI, Kraków 1927).
