Alexander KOTSIS, Gypsies with a bear, 1873.

Oil, cardboard, 17.5 x 30 cm, unsigned, affixed on the back opinion by Kazimierz Buczkowski, 1966. Exhibited and reproduced: Aleksander Kotsis. Shades of Realism, exhibition at the National Museum in Krakow March 5-July 11, 2021, ed. by Aleksandra Krypczyk-de Barra, Krakow 2021, cat. 115, p. 173.

Cracovian painter, pioneer of realist tendencies in painting of the 1860s and 1870s, began his education at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow under the tutelage of W. K. Stattler, W. Łuszczkiewicz and A. Płończyński, where he gained a reputation as one of the most talented students. Thanks to a scholarship he received in 1890, he continued his education in Vienna in the department of historical painting. Initially, a frequent motif in Kotsis' work was depictions of the Tatra Mountains highlighting the colorful folklore of Podhale, then he moved on to themes related to the poverty prevailing in the villages near Krakow. Many of the artist's works are now in Polish national museums, and are rarely found in antiquarian circulation.