Jacek MALCZEWSKI (1854-1929), Portrait of a girl

oil, board; 32.5 x 24 cm.

The work of Jacek Malczewski, master of Polish symbolic painting at the turn of the 20th century, is often marked by strong patriotic emotions. His care for his homeland, its tradition, folklore or culture, is also revealed in the offered small portrait depicting a girl in folk costume. Clad in a black, probably Cracovian kaftan with colorful trimmings, the rural woman may also be an expression depicting another tendency, characteristic initially found in the literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. - a current of interest in the life and culture of Polish peasants, the so-called "peasantry." The intensification of themes from the life of the Polish countryside can be found in Malczewski's work as early as the 1880s and runs with varying intensity throughout the artist's art.
The offered painting falls within the above-mentioned trend, and the painterly form, lightness of painting, colors, subtlety of rendering the face of the "model" leads us to date the time of its creation to the early years of the 20th century.