Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Sunday at the mine (Rest at the mine), c. 1882
Oil on canvas
Height: 118 cm (46.4 in); Width: 180 cm (70.8 in)
National Museum in Warsaw
Sunday in the Mine from 1882 is one of many paintings by Jacek Malczewski - realistic, symbolist, expressionist - devoted to the martyrdom of Polish exiles, including participants of subsequent national uprisings, in Siberia. The Siberian series painted by Malczewski in the years 1877-1895 includes scenes from stages, prisons, mines and places of exile.
Sunday in the Mine - additionally emphasizes inhumane living conditions for convicts forced to work also on Sundays. More on this painting
Jacek Malczewski (15 July 1854 – 8 October 1929) was a Polish symbolist painter who is one of the most revered painters of Poland, associated with the patriotic Young Poland movement following a century of Partitions. He is regarded as the father of Polish Symbolism. His creative output combined the predominant style of his times, with historical motifs of Polish martyrdom, the romantic ideals of independence, Christian and Greek mythology, folk tales, as well as his love of the natural world. He was the father of painter Rafał Malczewski.
Jacek Malczewski
RETURN TO THE HOMELAND, c. 1916
Oil on cardboard, Diptych
218 cm x 86 cm
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Maria Bal (Balowa) née Brunicka, c. 1909
Oil on canvas
Muzeum Narodowe
Jadwiga Maria Kinga Bal (Balowa) of Zaleszczyki, née Brunicka (July 26, 1879 – January 1, 1955) was a Polish baroness and a lifelong muse of Jacek Malczewski, considered Poland's national painter. She served as the live model for a series of his symbolic portrayals of women, as well as nude studies and mythological beings. Most were completed before the interwar period when Poland had not yet achieved independence. More on Maria Balowa
Malczewski was born in Radom, Congress Poland, under occupation of the Russian Empire. During his childhood and early youth he was greatly influenced by his father Julian, a Polish patriot and social activist who introduced him to the world of romantic literature inspired by the November Uprising. On his mother's side, he was related to the Szymanowski family whom they often visited on their Masovian country estate in Cygów. The attractiveness of the Polish landscape and associated folklore had been awakened in him by Feliks Karczewski, his uncle and long-time guardian, who had invited future novelist Adolf Dygasiński to his estate, to act as Jacek's home tutor.
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Bacchante, portrait of Maria Balowa, circa 1907
Oil on paper
Height: 80.5 cm (31.6 in); Width: 64.5 cm (25.3 in)
Lviv National Art Gallery
In Greek mythology, maenads were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones." Maenads were known as Bassarids, Bacchae or Bacchantes in Roman mythology, after the penchant of the equivalent Roman god, Bacchus, to wear a bassaris or fox-skin.
Often the maenads were portrayed as inspired by Dionysus into a state of ecstatic frenzy through a combination of dancing and intoxication. During these rites, the maenads would dress in fawn skins and carry a thyrsus, a long stick wrapped in ivy or vine leaves and tipped with a pine cone. They would weave ivy-wreaths around their heads or wear a bull helmet in honor of their god, and often handle or wear snakes. More Bacchante
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Medusa, c. 1900
Oil on canvas
Height: 48 cm (18.8 in); Width: 63 cm (24.8 in)
Lviv National Art Gallery
In Greek mythology Medusa was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as a winged human female with a hideous face and living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazers on her face would turn to stone. She lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. The 2nd-century BCE novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth, as part of their religion.
Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion. More on Medusa
Jacek Malczewski
CHIMERA IN THE ARTIST'S STUDIO, c. 1910
Oil on canvas
74 x 60 cm
Private collection
The Chimera, according to Greek mythology, was a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of more than one animal. It is usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat protruding from its back, and a tail that might end with a snake's head. It was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra.
The term "chimera" has come to describe any mythical or fictional creature with parts taken from various animals, to describe anything composed of very disparate parts, or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling. More on the Chimera
The painting was created as part of the (now dispersed) triptych, which Malczewski showed in 1906 at the III Charity Exhibition of the TZSP in Warsaw under the original title of Old Tale . In 1916 this triptych was exhibited in Warsaw.
Jacek Malczewski
ARTIST AND CHIMERA , c. 1906
Oil on cardboard
32.6 cm x 40.6 cm
Private collection
The painting was created as part of the (now dispersed) triptych, which Malczewski showed in 1906 at the III Charity Exhibition of the TZSP in Warsaw under the original title of Old Tale . In 1916 this triptych was exhibited in Warsaw.
The Pythia was the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi who also served as its oracle, also known as the Oracle of Delphi.
Jacek Malczewski
PASTUSZEK I CHIMERA/ SHEPHERD BOY AND THE CHIMERA, c.1905
Oil on cardboard
32.4 cm x 40.5 cm
Private collection
This "Chimera", a half-animal-woman lover, lasciviously lounged among the fields, with a young boy, amidst rich and lush nature, enchanting, saturated with poetry and elusive sensuality. Hairy, cat's thighs opened, her head with ancient hairstyle turned towards the young appendix. - The rural creature of a goose was grazing right next to it ... Over a stream and a pipe, the boy was playing unaware, in the voice of a Chimera goose he was lured, ran up and listened, listened, wonders .. And the terrible lady plays a new note to him, More on this painting
The painting was created as part of the (now dispersed) triptych, which Malczewski showed in 1906 at the III Charity Exhibition of the TZSP in Warsaw under the original title of Old Tale . In 1916 this triptych was exhibited in Warsaw.
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Pithia, c. 1917
Oil on canvas
Lviv National Art Gallery
Ancient Greece the city of Delphi had long traditions of being the centre of the world. According to legend, a huge serpent, named Python, guarded the spot before it was slain by the infant god Apollo. When Apollo’s arrows pierced the serpent, its body fell into a fissure and great fumes arose from the crevice as its carcass rotted. All those who stood over the gaping fissure fell into sudden, often violent, trances. In this state, it was believed that Apollo would possess the person and fill them with divine presence.
These peculiar occurrences attracted Apollo-worshipping settlers during the Mycenaean era, and slowly but surely the primitive sanctuary grew into a shrine, and then, by 7th century BCE, a temple. It would come to house a single person, chosen to serve as the bridge between this world and the next. Named after the fabled serpent, this chosen seer was named the Pythia – the oracle. More on Oracle of Delphi
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Pytia, c. 1917
Oil on canvas
Height: 210 cm (82.6 in); Width: 110 cm (43.3 in)
National Museum in Kraków
Jacek Malczewski
In the Studio, Nike, 1922
Oil, on cardboard
100 x 71.5 cm
Private collection
Nike was the goddess of victory in Greek mythology, depicted as having wings, hence her alternative name "Winged Goddess". She was the daughter of the Titan Pallas and the goddess Styx, sister of Kratos (power), Bia (Force) and Zelus (zeal). The four siblings were companions of Zeus, and Nike had the role of the divine charioteer, flying above battlefields and giving glory to the victors. More on Nike
Jacek Malczewski 1854-1929
Nike Legions, c. 1916
196x99
The National Museum in Krakow
Malczewski was an ardent supporter of the Polish Legions. In works relating to the struggle of the legionnaires, he developed the romantic, messianic symbolism of "rebirth through death". It assumed the necessity of a blood sacrifice so that Poland could "resurrect". The picture shows the goddess, who flew from the skies to reward a fallen legionnaire with a palm branch. She still has an armful of palm trees in the knot on her back, which she will spread to other fallen. The goddess' gesture is like a magical signal that starts the mystery that takes place in the background of the painting. On a vast battlefield, the fallen comrades of a dead soldier are ascended to heaven on angelic wings. The artist combined ancient mythology with Christian symbolism. On a vast battlefield, the fallen comrades of a dead soldier are ascended to heaven on angelic wings. More on this painting
Jacek Malczewski
Orpheus and Eurydice, c. 1914
Oil on canvas
197 x 120 cm
Private collection
When the wood-nymph Eurydice was fatally bitten by a snake, her husband Orpheus, son of the Sun-god Apollo and the Muse Calliope, refused to accept her death and journeyed from his home in Thrace to the Underworld to regain her. After charming the deities Pluto and Proserpine with his beautiful music which had the power to tame wild beasts, Orpheus was permitted to lead Eurydice through the shadows back to the Earth. He was warned that he must not look back at her until they were in the daylight again. At the moment that they were about to emerge from Hades, Orpheus was consumed with temptation to see his wife and turned to see her disappear back into the darkness, losing her again and forever. This moment depicted in Watts dramatic painting. More on Orpheus and Eurydice
Malczewski moved to Kraków at age 17, and began his artistic education in 1872 under the watchful eye of Polish painter and draughtsman Leon Piccard and attended his first art classes in the workshop of Władysław Łuszczkiewicz at the School of Fine Arts. A year later, in 1873, assessed by Jan Matejko himself, Malczewski formally enrolled at the School, and studied with Łuszczkiewicz, Feliks Szynalewski and Florian Cynk. In 1876 he went to Paris and studied for a year at the École des Beaux-Arts, in the studio of Henri Lehmann. He next moved to the Académie Suisse.
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Christ and the Samaritan woman, c. 1909
Oil on canvas
Height: 73 cm (28.7 in); Width: 92 cm (36.2 in)
Museum of the Warsaw Archdiocese
Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.. Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink', you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." More on the Samaritan woman
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Christ and the Samaritan Woman, c. 1912
Oil on canvas
Lviv National Art Gallery
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Christ in front of Pilate, c. 1910 Edit this at Wikidata
Oil on canvas
Lviv National Art Gallery
In the canonical gospels, Pilate's court refers to the trial of Jesus in praetorium before Pontius Pilate, preceded by the Sanhedrin Trial. In the Gospel of Luke, Pilate finds that Jesus, being from Galilee, belonged to Herod Antipas' jurisdiction, and so he decides to send Jesus to Herod. After questioning Jesus and receiving very few replies, Herod sees Jesus as no threat and returns him to Pilate.
It was noted that Pilate appears as an advocate pleading Jesus' case rather than as a judge in an official hearing. In the Gospel of John Pilate's back and forth movement from inside the praetorium to the outside courtyard, indicates his “wavering position.” More on Pilate's court
Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929)
Saint Agnes, c. 1920-1921
Oil on wood
H. 80; W. 120 cm
Warsaw, National Museum
Agnes of Rome (c. 291 – c. 304) was a popular saint about whom little is known, Agnes is said to have been a beautiful, wealthy Roman maiden who had, in childhood, dedicated herself to God. Some say that a rejected suitor betrayed her to authorities; others say that she was asked at 13 to sacrifice to the gods and marry, both of which she refused. Legends tell of her being thrown into a brothel, where her purity was miraculously preserved. Having escaped that fate, she was martyred. In the IV Century, Constantia, the daughter of Constantine, built a basilica on the site of her tomb. St. Ambrose wrote about Agnes in De virginitate, and Damasus I wrote an epitaph for her. Prudentius composed a hymn in her honor. Her emblem in art is the lamb because of the similarity between her name and the Latin word for lamb, agnus. More on Agnes of Rome
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
St John with Salome, detail, c. 1911
Oil on canvas
National Museum Poznań
Salome was the daughter of Herod II and Herodias. She is infamous for demanding and receiving the head of John the Baptist, according to the New Testament. According to Flavius Josephus's Jewish Antiquities, Salome was first married to Philip the Tetrarch of Ituraea and Trakonitis. After Philip's death in 34 AD she married Aristobulus of Chalcis and became queen of Chalcis and Armenia Minor. They had three children. Three coins with portraits of Aristobulus and Salome have been found. Her name in Hebrew meaning "peace". More on Salome
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Salome with the head of John the Baptist
1916. Oil on canvas. 171 x 90.5 cm.
Private property.
Jacek Malczewski
Angel and Shepherd Boy, c. 1908
Oil on cardboard
59.5 x 49 cm.
Private collection
The annunciation to the shepherds is an episode in the Nativity of Jesus described in the Bible in Luke 2, in which angels tell a group of shepherds about the birth of Jesus. It is a common subject of Christian art and of Christmas carols.
Jacek Malczewski
IN THE CHURCH, circa 1884
Watercolour, gouache, ink, paper
25 x15.5 cm
Private collection
Malczewski had already begun master classes with Jan Matejko in 1875 before embarking on the trip to France, and completed them in 1879 after his return from abroad. In spite of considerable stylistic differences between them, Malczewski was greatly influenced by Matejko's historical painting filled with neo-romantic metaphor and patriotic themes. In 1879, Malczewski completed a course in composition under Matejko. He was equally impressed with the dramatic art of earlier Polish romantic painter Artur Grottger. His painting revolved around a few carefully selected motifs, constantly retold and expanded according to mythology and filled with national symbols. His own imagination enabled Malczewski to channel his creativity and let new aesthetic ideas emerge giving rise to what became Poland's school of Symbolism.
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Vicious circle, c. 1897
Oil on canvas
Height: 174 cm (68.5 in); Width: 240 cm (94.4 in)
National Museum Poznań
Vicious Circle has been considered one of Malczewski's major works and is generally interpreted as an allegory of the role of an artist.
The painting depicts a fantastic vision of human figures whirling dynamically in mid-air in a magical circle. The artist represented himself as a pensive boy sitting on top of a stepladder above the titular vicious circle and holding a brush in his hand. He is surrounded by the naked bodies of Bacchantes; youths and elderly men personifying the feelings and imagination of a young artist. The left and better-lit side of the painting symbolizes sensual ecstasy while the right, dark side represents the fears and anxiety of the artist. The work can be interpreted as a question on the nature of art and the vocation of an artist. More on this painting
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Melancholia, c. 1890-1894
Oil on canvas
Height: 139 cm (54.7 in); Width: 240 cm (94.4 in)
National Museum Poznań
Melancholia is considered to be Malczewski "manifesto" - and in the Polish art of those times, which conveyed some traditions of European painting
The painting is rich in signs, symbols and myths corresponding closely with national history, alongside the role of the artist in depicting such signs. As a work of multiple meanings, it is a constant object of reinterpretation by critics who are far from being unanimous about the meaning of particular figures, objects, and thus the whole scene. n spite of its numerous interpretations, the art critics agree that the painting has not yet been interpreted exhaustively. More on this painting
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Painter's Muse/ Inspiration of the Painter, c. 1897
Oil on canvas
60 × 63 cm
National Museum in Krakow
Inspiration of the Painter is one of the first paintings in a large series entitled Polonia, which Malczewski completed in 1918, after Poland regained independence. It depicts an artist in the moment of creation and a woman ghost, as if in a somnambulistic sleep, who has emerged in his imagination. She has a straw crown falling off her head onto her back and fetters binding her legs. Around her hips, there is a Russian army greatcoat with a soap bubble among its folds. She is the personification of Polonia – dethroned, exiled, enslaved, in the state of political non-existence. In the background one can see vague outlines of the figures of men who probably symbolize the tree partitions and express hopeless despair or indifference. More on this painting
Jacek Malczewski
Little Painter and Muse, c. 1898
Oil on canvas
80 x 63.8 cm.
Private collection
Over the course of some 30 years, between 1885 and 1916, Malczewski regularly visited Paris, Munich and Vienna. He made several trips to Italy, Greece and Turkey. He also took part in an archaeological expedition organized by his friend Karol Lanckoroński. He drew his inspiration from a wide variety of sources often exotic or biblical, and translated them back into Polish folklore, tradition and motifs in his own painting. His most famous canvases include Błędne koło (Vicious Circle, 1895–97) (See above), Melancholia (1890–1894) (See above), Natchnienie malarza (Painter's Muse, 1897) (See above), Wizja (A vision, 1912) (See below), the Thanatos series, and Bajki (Fables). Many of his paintings prominently feature self-portraits in elaborate costumes, a trademark of his style, often displaying a great sense of self-mocking humour.
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Polonia, c. 1914
Oil on cardboard
150 x 99 cm.
Private property.
Women held a crucial role: they could symbolise the lost country- "Polonia"- or take the fantastical shape of a chimera or a harpy harassing the artist. They could also embody death, in the conventional shape of a powerful young girl holding a scythe or the more frightening aspect of "Thanatos", Death's terrifying envoy.
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Vision
Oil on canvas
Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi
In 1897–1900 and 1912–1921 Malczewski served as professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. He was elected Rector of the Academy in 1912. His art has been compared to that of the Frenchman Gustave Moreau, the Swiss Arnold Böcklin, and even to the Spaniard Salvador Dalí. His paintings won numerous awards at international exhibitions including Berlin in 1891, Munich in 1892, and Paris in 1900.
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Tobias with the angels, c. 1908
Oil on board
197 × 244 cm
The Silesian Museum in Katowice
The painter was inspired by the biblical story about Tobias' journey , started from the Book of Tobit. In the Bible, only Archangel Raphael was the companion of the boy wandering with his dog . The painting by Malczewski presents all three Archangels known from the Catholic tradition: Raphael, Michał and Gabriel. These characters hold symbols: a staff, a lily, and a sword, according to their principal attributes. For Malczewski, however, these are not male types, but rather female types, with powerful, colorful wings. In the face of Rafał you can recognize the face of Malczewski's muse, Maria Balowa. More on this painting
From the symbolist iconography replete with motifs of death Malczewski drew the figure of Thanatos, reaching into ancient sources of European culture. The portrayal of Thanatos as main subject of his work commenced in1898. Over the year he created a series of paintings featuring the theme of death in allegorical manner (Thanatos, Thanatos I, Thanatos II). Ironically, Malczewski portrayed the mythological god of death as a young woman with a scythe in her hands. Her supernatural powers are symbolised by decoratively outlined wide wings.
Jacek Malczewski
Death, c. 1917
Oil on cardboard
100 x 74 cm.
Museum of Art in Łódź.
Jacek Malczewski
Model Maria Balowa as death reading obituaries in the newspaper, c. 1907
Oil on canvas
Warsaw - National Museum
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Death, c. 1902
Oil on canvas
Height: 98 cm (38.5 in); Width: 75 cm (29.5 in)
National Museum in Warsaw
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Death, c. 1911
Oil on canvas
Height: 46 cm (18.1 in); Width: 55 cm (21.6 in)
National Museum Poznań
Jacek Malczewski
Ellenai, c. 1911
Oil on paperboard
53 x 38 cm
Private collection
Ellenai (see below)
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Death of Ellenai, c. between 1906 and 1907
Oil on canvas
Height: 145 cm (57 in); Width: 116 cm (45.6 in) [191 x 182 x 9]
National Museum in Warsaw
Anhelli is a prose poem written by Polish Romantic-era poet and dramatist Juliusz Słowacki in 1837 and published the following year in Paris.
The poem conveys a pessimistic vision of the future of Polish emigration and the fight for the country's independence. It directly alludes to Adam Mickiewicz's Books of the Polish Nation and Polish Pilgrimage by employing stylized biblical prose. It portrays antagonized Polish exiles who are destined for destruction in the realities of Siberia, a place strongly associated with the martyrology of the Polish nation. It sends a messianistic message and poses the question whether the whole nation can ever be saved by an individual or an entire generation of emigrants.
The vertically oriented painting depicts a man kissing the feet of a supine woman in a barn. Next to the woman hangs a row of animal hides. More on this painting
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
Death of Ellenai, c. 1883
Oil on canvas
National Museum in Krakow
Malczewski drew inspiration from the poem "Anhelli" by Juliusz Słowacki for almost forty years, from the time of his studies at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow until 1918, the year when Poland regained independence. Based on the content and mood of the poem, the artist painted a series of works portraying not only the life of a young exile called Anhelli and his companion in misery, Ellenai, but also the hell of the Siberian penal servitude in a broader sense. The artist invested the scene of death of Ellenai with monumental quality. The position of the body, emphasized with horizontal lines of the elements of the background, and the figure Anhelli, frozen with pain and helplessness, convey the stillness and silence of death. A uniform brown and golden palette and diffused light, focussing on the woman’s body and hair, facilitate contemplation of the scene. Malczewski resigned from conveying the mystical nature of the exile’s death. He painted a naturalistic work imparting genre-historical character to it. The artist was probably inspired by a renowned work by Józef Simmler entitled Death of Barbara Radziwiłł (1860), which delighted the public with its elegiac mood and technical brilliance. Wacława Milewska. More on this painting
Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929)
The Artist's death, c. 1909
Oil on oak wood
Height: 107 cm (42.1 in); Width: 87.5 cm (34.4 in) [127 x 107 x 10]
National Museum in Warsaw
Malczewski was married to Maria née Garlewska and they had two children, Julia (born 1888) and Rafał (born 1892), also a painter. His son later sold off all of his father's works left to him, to the National Museum in Warsaw before World War II. During the war he left Poland and after travels in Southern Europe and Brazil, finally settled in Montreal.
It is believed that the subject of numerous nude studies in Jacek Malczewski's paintings, Maria Bal (Balowa) née Brunicka, was also his long-time lover. He lost his sight towards the end of his life and died in Kraków on October 8, 1929. He was buried at Skałka, Poland's national Panthéon. More on Jacek Malczewski
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