Jan Styka (1858 Lviv - 1925 Rome), Sketch for "Quo vadis" by Henryk Sienkiewicz - "The two prayed in Caesar's house."

pencil, paper, 46 × 30 cm in light passe-partout

Commissioned by the French publishing house Flammarion, Jan Styka created a series of illustrations to the work" Quo Vadis" by Henryk Sienkiewicz. The artist made more than 200 drawings and paintings in en grisaille technique. The sketch on display depicts the scene of Ligia and Ursus praying in Caesar's house. The publisher, Ernest Flammarion, was fascinated by Jan Styka's huge panorama "The Martyrdom of the Christians in Nero's Circus," which preceded Sienkiewicz's debut in Paris. The painting was exhibited at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition at the Palais de Glace on the Champs-Elysees. French critics received the painting enthusiastically and Jan Styka received a commission from Ernest Flammarion to illustrate the novel "Quo Vadis." As Jan Styka recalled, "I came to Paris for the World Exhibition with a project to exhibit "The Martyrdom of the Christians in Nero's Circus," not with the intention of settling in Paris. It took uncommon energy to get out the huge building needed for this canvas at such a late hour - like February. There was no more room at the World Exposition, and I had to look for a suitable place outside its perimeter. After thousands of westerlies, the Palais de Glace on the Champs Elysees was given to me, and the opening of the exhibition took place there in May. The result of the exhibition was that the publisher [Ernest] Flammarion appeared in my studio. A bold and very righteous man, with whom I immediately communicated and we decided to make a great publishing house. (...) Having to make 60 large compositions for reproduction on copper, I became convinced that my stay in Paris for a few years would drag on. So I decided to bring my son Tadzio to Paris. Walking once with one of my friends through Pigalle Square, I said that if there was an atelier in the house here, I would rent it at the moment, and indeed a card was issued - "Atelier for rent". I went in, had a look and gave the doorman a deposit. That's how I became [Jean-Jacques] Henner's neighbor, renting the former atelier of Puvis de Chavannes, on the second floor of this house. Here I worked closely for six years, and I can say that I began my student life again. I drew illustrations for "Quo vadis" all evenings, not wanting to let the brush out of my hand during the day. A wood engraver waited for them, a copper engraver waited for them. Every ten days a notebook of illustrations had to come out. "Once in a lifetime a publisher can undertake such an edition," Flammarion used to tell me, "one hundred woodcuts and 60 reproductions on copper. The cost of this publication exceeded 100,000 francs. The first few hundred pieces at 250 francs each were bought by lovers of luxury works immediately, the next 2,000 pieces at the more accessible price of 75 francs were also completely sold out. As soon as I illustrated in 1900. "Let's follow him!" Sienkiewicz, it was already Ollebdorf and other publishers who started approaching me with orders for illustrations from the ancient world. I had to refuse the most favorable proposals, having before me such a great work as "Quo vadis" and by no means wanting to give myself completely to illustration alone ..." (excerpts from J. Styka's diary, [in:] Czaplinski Cz., "The Styka Family Saga. The Saga of the Styka Family",Publishing Corporation, New York, 1988, p. 34.

"But Ligia slipped to her knees to beg someone else. Ursus knelt down after a while, too, and the two of them began to pray in Caesar's house, by the morning aurora. It was the first time Akte had seen such a prayer, and she could not take her eyes off Ligia, who, facing her in profile, with her head and hands raised, looked up to the sky, as if waiting for rescue from there. Dawn doused her dark hair and white peplum with light, reflected in her pupils and, all radiant, she looked like light herself. In her pale face, in her open mouth, in her raised hands and eyes, one knew some kind of supernatural rapture." (Henryk Sienkiewicz, "Quo vadis a novel from the time of Nero," volume 1, Warsaw 1896, pp. 122-123.)