Józef Kraczkowski, PORTRET PANNY PATZAK, 1882

28.8 x 19.8cm - oil, canvas glued on cardboard signed in Cyrillic script p.d.: I. Kraczkowskij | 1882.

On the reverse p.d. sticker (ink): Kraczkowskogo | Mlle Patzak | [...].



The portrayed Maria Ivanovna Patzak (St. Petersburg 1865 - Pargolovo near St. Petersburg 1915) was the daughter of Austrian Johann-Friedrich Patzak, owner of a fashion salon in St. Petersburg. It is known that Maria Ivanovna was an artist by training, so she probably studied in France, which could also be indicated by the portrait on display. Dated 1882, the canvas was painted by Kraczkowski during his stay on scholarship at the St. Petersburg Academy (1880-1884). After visiting Berlin, Düsseldorf, Munich, Milan and Madrid - the artist settled in Paris. The portrait was an extremely rare genre in his work, as the artist was primarily a landscape painter. Unfortunately, we do not know under what circumstances Maria and Joseph met, or how the portrait was painted. Maria Ivanovna returned to Russia around 1885, and in 1887 married violinist Mikhail Vasilievich Matiushin (1861-1934), an illegitimate descendant of the famous Saburov acting dynasty, with whom she had four children - Nikolai, Anna, Lidia and Maria. Between 1882 and 1913, Matyushin was the first violinist of the court orchestra. It is known that it was Maria who persuaded her husband to take up painting. He began taking classes at the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, and then at the studio of Jan Ciąglinski in St. Petersburg, where he met Yelena Henrykovna Guro (Eleonora Gouraud), with whom he fell in love and divorced Maria (in 1904 or 1906). Later Matyushin became a famous futurist painter and avant-garde theorist, and wrote the futurist opera Victory over the Sun (1913). A watercolor portrait of Maria, painted by her husband in the collection of the State Museum of History of St. Petersburg, dated to the early 20th century, has survived.

Josef Anatolius Kraczkowski (Yosif Yevstafyevich Kraczkowskij) (1854 Warsaw - 1914 Cadenabbia, Italy) was born (contrary to most sources, especially Russian, which place his birth in St. Petersburg) on July 3, 1854 in Warsaw at the parish of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary at 348/9 New Town Square (21). His parents were Eustachy Kraczkowski Marshal of the House of Count Rüdiger (Fyodor Vasilievich (Friedrich Alexander) Rüdiger/Rydygier, who in 1853-55 temporarily served as Governor of the Kingdom of Poland during the Crimean War in place of Paskievich) and Barbara of Dowhald (or Dowbald). He had as many as 6 godparents (including an inspector of the Lazienki Park, an administrative official (of the imperial palaces) and a furier of the Imperial Majesty's Court).
After graduating from gymnasium, he entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg (1871) - initially as a free student. According to Grigory Kryzhitsky's memoirs, another passion of "Kraczek" was music. In 1873, he received 2 silver medals small/2 cl. and large/1 cl. (so-called encouraging) for his landscape studies. From 1874 - he began studying in the landscape class with Baron Michail Petrowitsch Klodt von Jugensburg. In 1876 he received another small silver medal. In 1879, he graduated from the Academy with the title of class 1 painter and received a large gold medal for his painting Evening.