(Lublin 1850–1911 Munich)
Portrait of a Girl with Laurel Wreath, signed Czachorski, on the reverse an old handwritten label with title, oil on canvas, 34 x 27.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Galerie Helbing, Munich, 18 May 1903, lot 17;
European Private Collection;
Bukowski, Stockholm, 26 November 1997, lot 229;
European Private Collection.

The Polish painter Władysław Czachórski (Ladislaus von Czachorski) is a representative of the Munich School. He began his artistic education in 1866/1867, in the drawing class taught by the Polish history painter Rafał Hadziewicz (1803-1883). After this, he studied at the Dresden Academy of Art in 1868 before heading to the Munich Academy of Fine Arts from 1869 to 1873. He undertook study trips to Italy and France between 1874 and 1877, before settling in Munich in 1879. He ran a studio in there until his death, and soon established himself as a portrait painter favoured by the city’s wealthy bourgeoisie. He mainly painted genre scenes, portraits and still lifes, as well as images from literature, history and drama. His pictures of Shakespearean dramas are characterised by the naturalistic rendering of female figures in 18th-century costumes.
This lot is one of Czachórski’s extraordinary paintings and shows a girl with a laurel wreath, looking upwards in a reverie. The fabric that drapes the girl’s arm is masterfully rendered, as are the leaves of the laurel wreath. The sitter is depicted with photographic precision, with her gaze inviting the viewer to join her in her dreaming.