Włodzimierz Terlikowski (1873 Poraj - 1951 Paris), By the cart, 1913.

oil, canvas, 82 × 101 cm
Signed and dated p. d.: "(1)3 /Terlikowski"

"In his style Terlikowski does not resemble any artist and does not owe anything to any school, he is not indebted to any aesthetic tendency - neither from the past nor contemporary. So please don't try to look for knowledge, acquired culture in him. What you will find here is only a very personal vision that crosses the usual boundaries and explodes with spontaneity. Above all, do not look in his paintings for an intellect confidently making a choice of its path, means of expression, its reality. Here the master is only intuition. There are no reminders, references so helpful in delineating boundaries, no facilitators to guide orientation. Someone said - Guillaume Janneau, if I recall - that in the face of nature Terlikowski is completely virgin. That's exactly it. Terlikowski operates in the heat of the moment, forgive me for the surgical metaphor. He positions himself in front of a chosen motif, looks at it closely and shapes his composition live. There is no cooling of enthusiasm, no moment of pause in creative elation by working quietly, in the shelter of the studio. This great enthusiast never depleted his potential for joy with final touches, smoothing out the whole. [...] Without looking at anything, during a single session, for a couple of hours, without feeling weary or tired, the artist paints his picture - regardless of its size, regardless of the importance of the subject, regardless of the essence of the details depicted, regardless of the difficulties presented by the solution of the painting problems."
J. Topass, [1932] in: A. Czarnocka, "Strength and Life. Włodzimierz Terlikowski (1873-1951). Painting." [exhibition cat.], Polish Library in Paris, 2012, p. 19