Aleksander Władysław Malecki (1836 Masłów -1900 Szydłowiec), Suburbs of Kraków, 1872.

oil, duplicated canvas, 45 × 117 cm
Signed and dated l. d.: W. Malecki/1872

Provenance:
- Private collection, United Kingdom
- Christie's Mason & Woods auction, London, December 9-10, 1892
- Collection of William Henry Wallis
- French Gallery, London

"Space cannot be painted any better than Mr. Malecki paints it".
Kłosy 1987, no. 668, p. 255

The painting "Suburbs of Krakow", presented at auction, comes from the best period of the work of one of the most outstanding Polish landscape painters Wladyslaw Aleksander Malecki. His stay in Munich in 1870-1880 and his friendship with Jozef Brandt influenced the artist's greatest successes in the field and the art market. During these years, the artist came for short stays in the country, including visits to Krakow in 1872 and 1873, and the fruit of these sojourns were several paintings depicting Krakow and sub-Cracow motifs. An example of the artist's great critical acclaim and fame was a painting with exactly the same title as the one presented in the catalog. Malecki's Suburbs of Krakow was exhibited at the Vienna Universal Exhibition and the Munich Kunstverein in 1873, and in 1874 was awarded a gold medal at the Crystal Palace - Picture Gallery. After subsequent exhibitions in Krakow and Lviv, all hearing of the painting disappeared, and there is no one hundred percent certainty that the work presented in the catalog is the same. Nevertheless, back in 1878, "Kłosy" reported: "Wladyslaw Malecki sent four landscapes of larger sizes. Among them was "The Suburb of Cracow," for which he received a medal at an exhibition in London. The color scheme of the painting is excellent, the drawing correct, the grouping of trees and people refined, the lighting of the view and perspective excellent, that the eye feels the convexity of objects here and gets lost in the distant distance as in nature. Space cannot be painted any better than it is painted by Mr. Malecki, whose landscapes with perfect perspective in general have so much character, light and brilliance of vivid colors that they can stand comparison with the excellent landscapes in the world." (Kłosy 1987, No. 668, p. 255).
The artist used various compositional and formal solutions in the presented work, which, for the rest, often appeared in his works. Starting from the elongated, so-called "towel" format, by emphasizing spatial depth by shifting vertical elements to one side of the composition, he also perfectly conveyed the panoramic vastness of space with a lowered horizon line and an extended part of the sky covered with clouds, the naturalness of the shot, the faint, as if "submerged" in the landscape staffage, warm, diffused light blurring contrasts and color intensity, and finally the sensitively rendered gentle mood of a calm summer day. In addition to the stretched view, it is the elaborate and refined sky part that attracts special attention. "Wladyslaw Malecki, moreover, perceived landscape as a color phenomenon also in the parts of the sky and clouds - elements which he never treated as a factor on its own, but in connection with the mood of the painting." (W. Oborny [in:] "Władysław Aleksander Malecki 1836-1900", Kielce 1999, p.35)
Alexander Lesser wrote in "Spikes": " [...] the paintings of Mr. Malecki are gaining more and more popularity, and are even highly sought after abroad. (...) This artist does not imitate foreign manners, but looks directly at nature, and one must confess that despite the somewhat coarse painting, this picture makes a good impression at a certain distance; the sky in particular is excellent, and the plane on which the herd is grazing is perfectly depicted, as well as the trees and meadows are painted naturally". (A. Lesser, Kłosy, No. 468, p. 269) Analogous works can be found in the National Museums in Warsaw, Cracow, Kielce and Szczecin, as well as the Art Museum in Lodz, among others.