Antoni JEZIERSKI (1859-1939), In the artist's studio

oil, duplicated canvas; 70 x 113 cm;
Signed and inscribed l. d.: Antoni Jezierski Munich.

The offered painting "In the Studio" by the artist Antoni Jezierski, a painter from Lviv, is an exceptional rarity, not only on the auction market but also in museum collections, which makes the presented work exceptionally unique. The artist received his education at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow, where one of his teachers was Jan Matejko. Antoni Jezierski received a scholarship, thanks to which he traveled in Italy, and visited Vienna on his way back. He received a second award, also in the form of a trip - this time to Munich, in 1890. He was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts there. Thanks to the place markings on the painting and the information stating that the painter had already returned to the country in 1891, it can be assumed that the presented work dates from around 1890.
In the painting by Antoni Jezierski, one can see the influence of the master of historical painting - Jan Matejko, if only in the excellent drawing or the reference to the painting of Polish symbolism. The latter feature can be sought in the subject matter of the work, and in two varieties. The presented canvas, depicting a scene in the artist's studio, brings to mind, for example, the monumental representation by Jacek Malczewski "Melancholia", on which the painter worked in 1890-1894.
The second thread worth noting is the trend discernible, both in literature and visual arts, associated with the so-called "peasantomania" - expressed in the glorification and search for inspiration in the circle of folklore, rituals and folk beliefs. Advocates of folk themes included Teodor Axentowicz, Włodzimierz Tetmajer, Stanisław Wyspiański. In the work of Antoni Jezierski, in the left part of the composition, there are precisely the figures "of the people" frozen in stillness and silent admiration of what they saw, on the canvas facing the viewer. The foreground of the composition, however, is occupied by a girl in folk costume, who, detached from her work, has abandoned her sickle and is looking at the paints in the painting box in disbelief.
The work of Antoni Jezierski, in addition to searching for Young Poland themes in art, cannot be denied exceptional precision, both in the aforementioned drawing and composition, and above all realism. Here another analogy can be found in French realism painting, in Gustave Courbet's painting "Workshop" dating from 1855, now in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The French painter's monumental canvas depicts the artist at his easel, where a crowd of figures has gathered in his atelier to admire his artistry. And here, as in the work of Antoni Jezierski, one can see the social division, as on the left side of the composition "ordinary people" and on the right side "people from the upper classes" found their place.
The featured work, "In the Artist's Studio," is an exceptionally rare example of the confluence of two trends in Polish art of the second half of the 20th century, where the historicizing tendencies and the school of the master Jan Matejko (also expressed in the painterly form evident in the static figures admiring the painting) were slowly giving way to Young Poland's symbolist themes and freer way of painting, which can be seen in the last plan of the composition. Antoni Jezierski's inspiring work, bearing the characteristics of a simultaneous representation: the scene of the artist talking with a lady, perhaps captured while discussing the composition, which is ultimately on the canvas, which is turned backwards; the hieratic nature and a kind of independence from the whole composition, of the people observing the painting, a man sitting on a couch and pointing to a puzzling but evidently unique painting; is probably an extremely interesting painting, worthy of attention, both by art collectors and national museums.