Wladyslaw Bakalovich, LETTER

15,7 x 11,5cm - oil, mahogany board signed l.d.: LBakalowicz paris [initials tied].

Władysław Bakałowicz (Chrzanów 1833 - Paris 1903) was educated at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts (1849-1854). In 1863 he went to France and settled permanently in Paris. Naturalized in 1879, as Ladislaus (Ladislas) Bakalowicz, he participated in the Paris Salons (1865-83), and also exhibited in other French cities, receiving several decorations and awards. He also showed his works in Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, London and New York, as well as many times in Poland - in Warsaw (Zachęta, Krywult Salon) and in Cracow (TPSP). In his early works he painted city views, landscapes, genre scenes and paintings of Polish history. In Paris, he gained recognition and popularity primarily for scenes from the history of France in the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as for portraits and intimate, salon compositions with costumed ladies in opulent interiors, inspired either by old Dutch painting or by the then very popular paintings of J. L. E. Messonier. In addition, he also painted (mostly in pastels) somewhat frivolous female nudes; he did not exhibit these paintings and probably sold them immediately.

Technically very gifted, he did a lot of small paintings of the late 16th or early 17th century fashion. - era, which he conscientiously studied. Feasts, dances, visits, trefnis, peacocks, Valois, Buckinghams - provided him with historical anecdotes not too deeply understood, and a pretext for painting old closets, chairs, carpets, pillows, curtains, poufs, lace collars, etc. props of the kitchen of historical-era painting.

(E.Niewiadomski, "Malarstwo polskie XIX i XX wieku", Warsaw 1926, p. 144).