(Huta Miastowska 1852–1936 Warsaw)
At the foot of Wawel Castle in Krakow, signed L. Wyczol, on the reverse exhibition stamp Salon Artystow Malarzy Polskich Krakow,
oil on canvas laid down on board, 46 x 50 cm, framed, (Rei)

Provenance:
Private Collection, Germany.

Leon Wyczolkowsi was one of the founders of Poland’s modernist group “Young Poland” which in its ideas was very close to other movements set up across Europe by the disenchanted young artists of that time.Wyczółkowski trained in Krakow before travelling to Munich where he studied under Alexander Wagner. He pursued his education in Krakow with none other than Jan Matejko himself, from whom he probably got his taste for historical architecture. Wyczółkowski travelled to Paris twice in connection with the 1878 and 1889 World Exhibitions. There he saw the Barbizon school for the first and the Impressionists for the second time, both of which profoundly influenced his art. He became a plein-air painter himself and focused on the representation of light in his works. Wyczółkowski spent more than ten years in Ukraine, where he was drawn to realism and painted commissioned portraits but also local fishermen and the working class, depicted while working outdoors in glistening water or basking in an impressionist light. Wyczółkowski moved back to Krakow in the late 1800s where he worked as a professor at the Krakow School of Fine Arts. The Krakow years and early 1900s were characterised by many landscape paintings, especially of the Tatra mountains, and realist portraits. Wyczółkowski was also one of Poland’s major graphic artists, trying every technique and depicting every possible subject. His works are exhibited in the National Museums of Krakow and Warsaw.