Jan Styka, PETRONIUS, 1900

46,1 x 37,7cm - oil, board signed l.d.: JStyka

On the back l.g. (in black crayon): Pétrone [...] | C [...]; below in pink crayon: 11; p.g. (in blue crayon): 048 [in circle]; center (in blue crayon): 84 | 12 [in circle] | 3829 | d JS #5; left (in black crayon): Jan Styka 1900 | Paris; p.d.. 56 x 48.



Provenance:

Paskowski Family Collection, USA.

Dr. Richard and Catherine Paskowski were both born in New York as children of Polish immigrants. Although they lived in the United States, they cherished their Polish heritage, traveled throughout Poland and spent years amassing a fine collection of Polish art. They made many donations to Polish causes in the US. They also wanted the remainder of the collection to go back to Poland and please Polish collectors.



Jan Styka was the first Polish artist to illustrate the full text of Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz. He made more than 200 drawings and paintings en grisaille for the Paris-based publishing house of Ernest Flammarion. In 1901, the first of three volumes of a luxurious, lavishly illustrated edition of the Nobel Prize winner's novel was published. The next two volumes were published in 1902 and 1903. Styka also made more than a dozen oil paintings for the novel. Most of these works were exhibited in Warsaw in September 1902, in the building after the Golgotha panorama, and then at the World Exhibition in St. Louis in the United States in 1904. The Petronius on display, dated 1900, was part of this series, but did not make it to the exhibitions again. Fortunately, one might say, because the works exhibited in St. Louis were consumed by fire. The loss of these paintings forced the artist to reproduce them based on the sketches he had. The author's copies in 1912 were presented at an exhibition at the Salle des Beaux Arts on Boétie Street in Paris, which was very popular.



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Jan Styka (Lviv 1858 - Rome 1925) - popular painter of historical and battle scenes, author of allegorical and religious paintings, portraitist, father of painters Tadeusz and Adam Styka. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, then in Rome, and from 1882-1885 with Jan Matejko at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow. After his studies, he spent several years in Paris and later lived in Lviv. In 1895 he traveled to Palestine. After 1900 he lived permanently in Paris, from where he traveled to the United States, Italy and Greece. A participant in many exhibitions, including the Paris Salons and the World Exhibition in St. Louis (1904), he enjoyed considerable popularity and even fame. He was a member of the Academy of St. Luke in Rome. He was also the originator and co-author of famous panoramas - Panorama of the Battle of Raclawice (1892-1894; exhibited permanently in Wroclaw today; together with W. Kossak and others), Golgotha (1896; now in Los Angeles), Panorama of Transylvania (1897; cut into parts, only fragments remain), and Martyrdom of Christians in Nero's Circus (1899; canvas lost during World War I). He was involved in illustration, including preparing illustrations for a luxury edition of Quo vadis? Sienkiewicz.