Pocket square 'Kolomyjka' Teodor Axentowicz
- painter: Teodor Axentowicz
- paint: Kołomyjka (Oberek. Taniec ludowy przed domem)
- year: 1895
- oil, 85 x 112,5
- National Muzeum in Warsaw
Teodor Axentowicz was a painter, illustrator, and graphic artist. He was one of the leading representatives of Young Poland’s art inspired by Polish folklore and a creator of salon portraits. He was born on 13th May 1859 in Brasov, Romania, and died on 26th August 1938 in Kraków.
Between 1879 and 1882, he studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts in the studios of G. Hackel, S. Wagner, and G. Benczur. Between 1882 and 1895 he continued his artistic studies in Paris under E. A. Carolus-Duran. He has also collaborated as an illustrator with the widely read Parisian magazines Le Monde Illustré, L’Illustration and Figaro. He also earned his living making copies of paintings by old masters such as Botticelli, Titian and Hans. In 1891 he was accepted as a member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Between 1890 and 1899 he went on a series of artistic trips to London and Rome; in London, he painted portraits of members of the establishment on commission, while simultaneously studying traditional and contemporary English portrait painting, including works by T. Gainsborough, J. McNeill Whistler and the pre-Raphaelites. He met members of the Polish artistic colony in Józef Chełmoński’s studio, visited Hôtel Lambert and Władysław Mickiewicz’s house (which was an ‘oasis of Polishness’). The images of famous political and cultural personalities, including Wiktor Osławski (1890), Prince Władysław Czartoryski (1892-1893), Cyprian Godebski (1893), Sarah Bernhard and Henrietta Fouquier, which were created at that time, secured his reputation as a salon portraitist. In 1894 he collaborated with Wojciech Kossak and Jan Styka on the creation of Racławice Panorama.
In 1910, he became the first elected Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Individual presentations of Axentowicz’s work took place in Kraków (1924, 1926, 1938 - posthumously), Warsaw (1930), and Łódź (1930).
The artist exhibited his works at almost all national and international exhibitions, including St. Louis (1904), Munich (1905), London (1906), Vienna (1908), Berlin (1913), Venice (1926) and Prague (1927). He also took part in international exhibitions in Berlin (1896), Munich (1935), Rome (1911), Venice (1914), Paris (1921) and Chicago (1927). In 1909, Emperor Franz Joseph awarded him the Order of the Iron Crown of the Third Class; in 1923, he was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta Third Class, the Commander’s Cross; in 1929, he was awarded the Medal of the Decade of Reborn Poland, and in 1936, the Commander’s Cross with Star. At the National Exhibition in Poznań in 1929, he was awarded the Grand Gold Medal.
The artist would later retrace these themes many times using oils, pastels and watercolours. The dynamics of spontaneous dance and the whirling movement of couples are evocatively reflected in Kolomyjka by a fast, spontaneous brush-like duct that draws out forms with blurred contours, subordinated to the colourful triad of white, brown and red.
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One of our pocket squares from the 'Artworks Collection'.
Limited edition: only 30 pieces.
- fabric: 78% cotton, 20% modal, 2% cashmere
- size: 40 x 40 cm
- handrolled edges
- Artist: Teodor Axentowicz
- National Museum in Warsaw