pastel, watercolor, paper pasted on cardboard; 50 x 35 cm;
Signed middle l.: T. Axentowicz
Provenance:
private collection, Poland
Axentowicz [...] succumbed to the then-prevalent disease of falling in love with folklore along with Wyspianski, Tetmajer and Stanislavski. The painter of Parisian boudoirs goes to the antipode of Paris, - the Hutsul countryside, enthusiastic as sincerely as Paris: the picturesqueness of the regional character of the Hutsul region. [...] Numerous studies of folk types and rituals delighted his contemporaries and brought the painter success.
Marian Dienstl-Dabrowa
The artist's interest in the Hutsul region significantly translated into the subject matter of his paintings. The Young Poland artist repeatedly studied these motifs, both in depicting religious rituals and characteristic portraits. He executed the charming image of a young girl with his usual lightness and perfection of craftsmanship. Juicy colors, marked with expressive lines, are interspersed with flatly laid, dark color stains. The viewer's attention is drawn to the face of the Hutsul girl - for Axentowicz, as a master of portraiture, essential for conveying the character and emotions of the figure.
Bibliography:
Teodor Axentowicz. Catalog of a posthumous exhibition, Society of Friends of Fine Arts, Krakow 1938-1939
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