Boleslaw Szankowski, Girl with a Basket

101.0 x 80.5 cm - oil, canvas

Signed l.g.: Szańkowski

On the reverse a paper sticker of the framing company: Bräuchle | RAVENSBURG.
On the g. strip of the frame a sticker of the Warsaw auction house and Agra-Art from 2004.

Boleslaw Szankowski (Warsaw 1873 - Fischbachau in Bavaria 1953), popular portrait painter, studied at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow (1891-1894), at the Munich Academy under Johann C. Herterich (1894) and at the Académie Colarrosi and Académie Julian in Paris (1896-1898). In 1912 he settled permanently in Munich, from where he made numerous trips to France, Belgium, England and Scotland, the United States. A highly regarded portraitist, he painted many representative portraits of people from the aristocracy and European ruling families. He portrayed, among others, Ignacy Paderewski, Princess Daisy von Pless, the Radziwill family, the Potocki family, the imperial family in Berlin and the royal family in Romania. He was eager to paint idealized portraits of beautiful and refined ladies and, more intimate, graceful children's portraits, repeatedly portraying his daughters Ada and Helena as well. At the Paris Salon in 1900, he received a mention honorable for his painting Portrait of an Officer. He participated in many exhibitions in Germany and Austria; he often sent paintings to national exhibitions; in 1928 and 1939 he had major solo exhibitions at Warsaw's Zachęta Gallery.
(Note: Szańkowski's place of birth is given after Thieme-Becker's dictionary; various sources also mention Kępno or Pogwizdów in Kielce).