Raphael MALCZEWSKI (1892-1965), Zima

oil, canvas; 101 x 80 cm;
Signed l. d.: Rafał Malczewski

Recommended general literature:
Malczewski Rafal [artist's biography opr. by Hanna Kubaszewska in: "Słownik artystów polskich ..., T. V," Warsaw 1993, pp. 284-287 - here a list of works in museum collections, bibliography;
Dorota Folga-Januszewska, Rafał Malczewski and the myth of Zakopane, T. I, Olszanica - BoSz Publishing House - 2006;
Zakopane in the time of Rafał Malczewski, collective work edited by D. Folga-Januszewska and Teresa Jabłońska, T. II, Olszanica - BoSz Publishing House - 2006.

The painting on display was created in the fully artistically mature period of Rafal Malczewski's work, when the artist "established his original, self-made style, creating strongly stylized, decorative paintings, built with broad planes, simplified lines and vivid, shining color [...] with space arranged like a theatrical decoration and imbued with light, constructed from selected fragments of reality and very Polish in character" [quoted by H. Kubaszewska, op. cit., p. 285].
The strength of the offered painting is that by painterly means, with smooth brushstrokes, using saturated color, compositional procedures, arrangement of lines, it creates an almost abstract composition with internal dynamics and tension. What gives the abstract concrete is
here expanded by a theme - the motif of the foothills theme. Thus, we are dealing with the double effect of the formal action of the painting and its content.