Stanislaw Witkiewicz, HUNTING WITH CHARDS, 1875

60.5 x 102.0cm - oil, canvas signed l.d.: Stanislaw Witkiewicz 1875.

On the reverse left number (crayon): 374, at the upper edge an illegible stamp; on the upper slat of the stretcher an exhibition sticker "Dzieje pracowni" of the National Museum in Poznań.



Image exhibited, mentioned and reproduced:

- Antoni Piotrowski, Autobiography, 1911 (typescript in IS PAN), notebook III, p. 4;

- Guide to the Exhibition of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, Warsaw, January 1927, p. 17, cat. no. 81;

- Kazimierz Kosinski, Stanisław Witkiewicz, Bibljoteka Polska Publishing Institute, Warsaw, 1928, p. 518;

- Tadeusz Dobrowolski, Nowoczesne malarstwo polskie, vol. 2, published by Ossolineum, Wrocław-Kraków 1960, p. 148;

- Zdzisław Piasecki, Stanisław Witkiewicz. Młodość i wczesny dorobek artysty, Wyd. PWN, Warsaw, Wrocław 1983, p. 140;

- Stanisław Witkiewicz 1851-1915 [cat. exhibition], Tatra Museum, Zakopane 1996, pp. 28, 47, item cat. 6;

- Stanisław Witkiewicz - man, artist, thinker. Materials from the session organized on the 80th anniversary of the artist's death, Zakopane, October 20 - 22, 1995, Zakopane 1997, pp. 15, 501;

- Marek Bratuń, Stanisław Gajda, Jan Neuberg, Duct of the Times. A memorial book in honor of Professor Marian Kaczmarek (1934-1994), Opole University, Opole 1999, p. 241;

- Zdzisław Piasecki, Stanisław Witkiewicz in the circle of people and matters close to himself: sketches not only biographical, Opole University, Opole 1999, p. 49;

- Jerzy Malinowski, Malarstwo polskie XIX w., DiG Publishing House, Warsaw 2003, p. 263;

- Chelmonski Chmielowski Witkiewicz. Studio at the Hotel Europejski in Warsaw 1874-1883, National Museum in Poznań, 21 III - 6 VI 2010, cat. no. 80, il. p. 301 and p. 342 (excerpt);

- Natalia Budzyńska, Witkiewicz. Witkacy's Father, Znak Publishing House, 2022, p. 85.



After a stay in Munich (1872-1873), Witkiewicz returned to Warsaw. Here in 1875, together with his friends from the period of his studies, he opened a joint studio, located in the former washerwomen's room in the attic of the Hotel Europejski. It is difficult to determine today who was the main tenant. From the beginning of its existence, Adam Chmielowski, Jozef Chelmonski, Antoni Piotrowski, as well as Jan Owidzki, Julian Maszyński, Stanislaw Maslowski were constant visitors.

Today, the studio at the Hotel Europejski is considered a central point of the capital's artistic life at the time. Various artists, painters, writers, critics and publicists frequented it. Its regulars quickly entered the circle of Warsaw's intellectual elite. At this time Witkiewicz, who is a graduate of the St. Petersburg and Munich academies, is already a mature painter. Before being "born" in 1884 as an art critic and theoretician, occupying a leading position in this field, he creates, exhibits and sells his paintings for 16 years. As J. Wojciechowski writes: He paints real scenes, which he throws on canvas with blunt boldness ("Tygodnik Ilustrowany" 1875, no. 415, pp. 377-378). In the 1870s, the subjects of his depictions are mainly scenes of village life: plowing, fairs, inns, hunting. Among the latter, undoubtedly his favorite subject was hunting with greyhounds, about which he wrote: There is a special charm and connection with the Polish temperament in it (quoted in Halina Cękalska-Zborowska, Wieś w malarstwie i rysunku naszych artystów, Warsaw 1974, p. 138). For his painting at this time, his friendship with Józef Chełmoński is of particular importance, as Zdzisław Piasecki writes: In his Munich days Witkiewicz shared a common studio with Chełmoński. The situation was similar in 1874-1875, immediately after the return of both painters to the country. Daily personal contacts, constant exchange of ideas, not infrequently even mutual interference in the current painting "works" not only brought the "palettes" of the two friends closer, but also strengthened in them the belief in the distinctiveness of their own talents, in the sense of intensive self-education work (Z. Piasecki, p. 115).

Undoubtedly, an excellent example of this creative relationship can be the Hunting with Greyhounds offered at auction. The painting is probably identical to the mentioned in Autobiography of Antoni Piotrowski Whistling for Greyhounds. At the same time, it is a special painting, a unique one, since the painting works of Stanislaw Witkiewicz, few of which have survived to this day, are a great rarity on the art market.

Stanislaw Witkiewicz - painter, writer, prominent art theoretician and critic, creator of the "Zakopane style" in architecture and ornamentation, father of Stanislaw Ignacy "Witkacy". After a stay in Tomsk, where - for his participation in the January Uprising - his family was in exile and where he studied drawing with the lithographer J. Volkmar Fleck, he took up studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg (1868-1871). In 1871 he went to Munich and briefly studied at the Academy under H. Anschütz. After returning to Poland (1873), he settled in Warsaw. He shared a painting studio at the Hotel Europejski with his friends - J. Chelmonski, A. Chmielowski and A. Piotrowski. At that time he also worked as an art director for the magazine "Wanderer". In 1880-82 he stayed in Munich, Marienbad and Meran. From 1890 he lived in Zakopane. Progressive lung disease caused him to spend the last years of his life in sanatorium conditions in Lovran, Istria. A promoter of realism in art, he tried to paint according to the theoretical assumptions of this direction. He created genre paintings, seascapes and Tatra landscapes, as well as scenes from the January Uprising, based on his childhood memories, and, less frequently, portraits.