Rafał MALCZEWSKI, Summer Landscape

Watercolor, paper, 32 x 46 cm illus. p-p., signed l.d.: Rafał Malczewski.

Painter, illustrator, writer and columnist, mountaineer, skier, popularizer of the Tatra Mountains. He was the son of painter J. Malczewski. He studied philosophy and architecture in Vienna, and after returning to Poland, he learned painting in his father's studio. From 1917 to 1939 he lived in Zakopane, where he entered the circle of the local artistic and intellectual elite, centered, among others, around Witkacy. In 1939 he went to France, then to Brazil and the USA. He was a member of the "Rhythm" group and the Podhale Art Society. He painted mainly landscapes in watercolor technique, often synthetic and simplified, referring to primitivism, with stylized and decorative form, in a narrow range of colors. His favorite subjects were Tatra landscapes, depicting snowy mountain pastures, sometimes interspersed with ski tracks, rock massifs and climbing scenes, as well as views from small towns, factory landscapes from Silesia and portraits.