Władysław Podkowiński
Biography Władysław Podkowiński - February 4, 1866 – January 5, 1895) was a Polish master painter and illustrator associated with the Young Poland movement during the Partition period. Podkowiński was born in Warsaw and began his artistic training at Wojciech Gerson's drawing school, He then transferred to the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts where he studied between 1880 to 1884.His first watercolor and oil paintings were produced during this time, but Podkowiński still considered them personal, not a public endeavor. Those early paintings were mainly influenced by Aleksander Gierymski. He adopted painting as a profession after a trip to Paris in 1889, where he was profoundly influenced by French Impressionist painters including Claude Monet. Podkowiński was later credited for bringing the Impressionist movement to Poland, but toward the end of his life, his failing health inclined him toward Symbolism. He died in Warsaw at the very early age of 28 due to tuberculosis.
Naturalizm He began his artistic education in 1882 as a student of the Warsaw drawing school run by Wojciech Gerson and Aleksander Kamiński. Simultaneously, he began his work as an illustrator with popular periodicals Tygodnik Ilustrowany and Wędrowiec. The artistic circle associated with Wędrowiec included renowned art critics such as Stanisław Witkiewicz and Antoni Sygietyński, who were passionately engaged in praising and propagating Realism. Their influence on Podkowiński's artistic stance is discernible in his early drawings depicting scenes of daily life in Warsaw, which were executed with the passionate curiosity characteristic of reporters and the attentiveness to detail that is typical of naturalist painters.
From Realism to Impressionism Podkowiński continued his artistic training at the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg in 1885-1886 under the supervision of the military art painter Bogdan Willewalde. He perfected his skills as a painter in Paris, where he lived in 1889 along with his schoolmate Józef Pankiewicz. This date marks also a turning point in his artistic stance. He abandoned the conventions of realistic painting in favour of impressionist techniques that enabled him to capture fleeting visual impressions on canvas. After his return to Poland in 1890, he settled down in Warsaw. At the salon of Aleksander Krywult, Podkowinski, together with Pankiewicz, exhibited a series of landscapes executed using impressionist techniques. These, however, met with intense criticism from both critics and members of the public - Zeschnięty słonecznik ; Latarnik paryski ; W okolicy Fontainebleau . Contrary to Pankiewicz, Podkowiński consistently developed his Impressionist technique of painting. Moreover, from the popular French Impressionists' repertoire of themes, he took the motif of a narrow street seen from above. The view from the
window of his studio allowed him to capture its changing appearances throughout the seasons – Ulica w Warszawie w dzień letni, 1891 In 1892, Podkowiński created a series of light–saturated landscapes in Mokra Wieś and Chrzęstne which accurately depict the shimmering effects of sunlight - Chłopiec w stawie - Mokra Wieś ; W ogrodzie ; Dzieci w ogrodzie . By applying tiny brushstrokes and founding the composition of the painting on the contrast between warm and cold tones, he managed to bring out glimmering patches of light and shade laying on leaves, flowers, and grass : Poranek – sad w Chrzęstnem, 1892 . In 1891 Podkowiński painted a Portrait of Wincentyna Karska which is considered to be the first portrait in the history of Polish art created in outdoors. The following landscapes painted in Wilczyce, Bidziny and Sobótka near Sandomierz, feature a more synthetic approach to form. Podkowiński piled up the horizontally spread planes of fields and hills by means of extensive and dynamic brushstrokes: Wilczyce – pole koniczyny, 1893; Krajobraz z Sobótki, 1893 In his landscapes from 1894 he applied spontaneous impasto technique and intensified the colours, as well
as started to randomly place the main themes of the painting within its frame.
Symbolizm In 1892 Podkowiński introduced themes to his paintings that were typical of European Symbolism. They referred to literature and focused on the motifs of love and death. From then, Podkowiński's artistic interests developed two ways - the bright and luminous landscapes served as a counterpoint to murky, dense and expressive paintings that anticipated the emergence of early Expressionism. This sudden turning point was marked by public display of Taniec szkieletow in 1892. It shows a procession of naked women whirling with skeletons in an abstract space. Podkowiński drew on one of the topos of symbolic iconography – the inevitability of the passing of time and life. Similarly literary in its symbolic aspect and fragile narration are Miraże –kompozycja symboliczna,1893, Ironia. Fantazja. Oddaj mi serce,1893; and Nocturn – bajka o zaklętej królewnie,1893, His best known painting, Szał uniesień , first exhibited in Zacheta Gallery in 1894, with its daring depiction of the well know iconographic motif of a naked woman on a horse, was surrounded by an atmosphere of scandal and public outcry, which escalated further after Podkowiński's attempt to destroy his own canvas. However, in some circles of critics and artist the painting has been considered as a manifesto of new art and a sign of rebellion challenging established aesthetical canons.
Driven by instinctive erotic forces, the woman on a demonic steed embodied destructive power. One of the examples of an antithesis to monumental, representative portraits of women painted against the background of decorative curtains - Portret, 1891, (Portrait of Stanisława Maszyńska); Portret, 1891, ( Portrait of Ewa Kotarbińska); Portret,1893, (Portrait of Teresa Jasieńska) - was the painting Rozmowa (Conversation), completed in 1894. It depicts two women confiding a secret in a suspended timeless moment which creates a specific emotional tension. The dynamic of the paintbrush and the predominant tone of red saturating the fabric of models' dresses as well as the abstract background, give the painting a predatory expression, and deepen its peculiar and painful aura.
“Szał Uniesień” is the most important painting he painted
And now I will exchange the pictures he painted “Plac Świętego Aleksandra” (1887)
“W Paryżu nad Sekwaną” (1889)
“Widok Nowej Słupi” (1890)
“W ogrodzie przy klombie” (1891)
“Ulica Nowy Świat w Warszawie w Dzień Letni” (1892)
„Mokra Wieś” (1892)
„W ogrodzie” (1892)
„Rozmowa” (1894)
„Marsz żałobny Chopina” (1894)