Władysław Jahl (1886–1953), Valley of the Wolves, 1933
Oil on canvas, 81.5 x 116 cm (frame) / 63 x 98 cm (inside frame).
Unsigned; title and date on the reverse.
Minor damage to the frame.
The painting comes from the artist’s studio.
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Władysław Jahl —painter, printmaker, and set designer. He was born in Jarosław in 1886. He studied law at the University of Lviv and art history at the Jagiellonian University. In 1912, he left for Paris, where he studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in the following years. After the outbreak of World War I, he went to Spain, where he met, among others, Józef Pankiewicz, under whose guidance he trained beginning in 1917. In 1920, he returned to Paris, where he became closely associated with the École de Paris, as well as with the Polish artists who were part of it, particularly Moise Kisling and Mela Muter. He participated in the Autumn Salons and the Salons of Independent Artists. In 1936 (or 1935, depending on the source), he co-founded the Group of Polish Artists in France, which was a reincarnation of the Union of Polish Artists in France from 1922, founded by Józef Pankiewicz and Wacław Zawadowski. He frequently stayed in Spain, and the influence of those travels is evident in his paintings. He designed theatrical sets and costumes, including for the Odeon Theater in Madrid. During World War II, he lived in the Grenoble area, and many of his works, left behind in his Paris studio, were lost. After the war, he used Mela Muter’s studio. He died in Paris in 1953.
