Self-portrait

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/280

Date of creation: 1905

Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 77.5 × 54.5 cm

In various periods of his life, the artist executed several self-portraits – either drawn or painted in oils or tempera. The most significant ones include this self-portrait from the collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, void of any accoutrements of the painting craft, also the Portrait of Myself depicting him in his studio in front of an easel (oil on wood, collection of Krzysztof Musiał), and his last one, quite nostalgic and moving, painted in his studio as well, in 1960 (oil on cardboard, National Museum in Szczecin).

Portrait of the artist’s mother – sketch

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/133

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 35.3 × 26.3 cm

Portrait of the artist’s mother, Barbara Helena Karpińska née Pisz, busying herself with handiwork (sewing). There is another one, in oils (pre-1904), depicting the artist’s mother in left profile, in a characteristic cap on her head (oil on canvas, National Museum in Szczecin).

Study of a walking man

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/134

Date of creation: 1903

Technique: charcoal and white chalk on paper

Dimensions: 31 × 24 cm

A study of a male figure with his back to the viewer, possibly observed during a market fair, just like the porter figure.

Study of a porter

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/135

Date of creation: 1903

Technique: charcoal and white chalk on paper

Dimensions: 30.4 × 23 cm

A study of a male figure with his back to the viewer, a porter, possibly observed during a market fair, just like the study of a walking man.

Young male nude

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/239

Date of creation: 1906

Technique: charcoal on paper

Dimensions: 48 × 29.5 cm

The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola holds a unique collection of male nude studies by Karpiński, executed at the academy in Vienna in 1906. The assembly is testimony to the painter’s excellent mastery of drawing technique and realistic depiction.

Seated male nude

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/240

Date of creation: 1906

Technique: charcoal on paper

Dimensions: 48 × 30 cm

The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola holds a unique collection of male nude studies by Karpiński, executed at the academy in Vienna in 1906. The assembly is testimony to the painter’s excellent mastery of drawing technique and realistic depiction.

Lying male nude

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/241

Date of creation: 1906

Technique: charcoal on paper

Dimensions: 48 × 29.5 cm

The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola holds a unique collection of male nude studies by Karpiński, executed at the academy in Vienna in 1906. The assembly is testimony to the painter’s excellent mastery of drawing technique and realistic depiction.

Study of a nude old man

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/242

Date of creation: 1906

Technique: charcoal on paper

Dimensions: 31 × 48 cm

The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola holds a unique collection of male nude studies by Karpiński, executed at the academy in Vienna in 1906. The assembly is testimony to the painter’s excellent mastery of drawing technique and realistic depiction.

Male nude

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/243

Date of creation: 1906

Technique: charcoal on paper

Dimensions: 47.5 × 27.5 cm

The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola holds a unique collection of male nude studies by Karpiński, executed at the academy in Vienna in 1906. The assembly is testimony to the painter’s excellent mastery of drawing technique and realistic depiction.

Male nude

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/244

Date of creation: 1906

Technique: charcoal on paper

Dimensions: 47 × 29 cm

The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola holds a unique collection of male nude studies by Karpiński, executed at the academy in Vienna in 1906. The assembly is testimony to the painter’s excellent mastery of drawing technique and realistic depiction.

Male nude

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/245

Date of creation: 1906

Technique: charcoal on paper

Dimensions: 48 × 29 cm

The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola holds a unique collection of male nude studies by Karpiński, executed at the academy in Vienna in 1906. The assembly is testimony to the painter’s excellent mastery of drawing technique and realistic depiction.

Study of a nude old man

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/246

Date of creation: 1906

Technique: charcoal on paper

Dimensions: 48 × 30 cm

The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola holds a unique collection of male nude studies by Karpiński, executed at the academy in Vienna in 1906. The assembly is testimony to the painter’s excellent mastery of drawing technique and realistic depiction.

Young male nude

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/247

Date of creation: 1906

Technique: charcoal on paper

Dimensions: 48 × 28.5 cm

The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola holds a unique collection of male nude studies by Karpiński, executed at the academy in Vienna in 1906. The assembly is testimony to the painter’s excellent mastery of drawing technique and realistic depiction.

Head of a girl in Bronowice

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/126

Date of creation: 1903

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 23.5 × 16 cm

Before leaving for Vienna, I spent some time living in Bronowice, where I painted pictures on folk subjects. I revisited this subject, which I found very interesting, many times, spending all my school holidays in Bronowice. (Alfons Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], p. 13).

Karpiński contributed to the phenomenon of the Young Poland movement, taking an active and intense part in Kraków’s cultural life. Like many other artists of the time, he was fascinated by the folklore of the rural areas outside Kraków. When he stayed in Bronowice, the village that had by then grown into something of a myth for him, due to Wyspiański’s play The Wedding, he drew a number of studies and sketches which splendidly reflected his talent and excellent sense of observation.

The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola holds an assembly of works from Bronowice, including a sketch of a girl’s head in a scarf.

A house in Bronowice Duże

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/227

Date of creation: 1903–1904

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 23.5 × 31 cm

A sketch for the 1905 painting Tavern (oil on wood, 27.5 × 34.5 cm, private collection). The Bronowice drawings in the collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola reveal the artist’s fondness for the rural areas outside Kraków and the Young Poland movement’s fascination with folklore.

Tree shrine

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/128

Date of creation: 1904

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 20 × 16.5 cm

A shrine on a tree is one of the characteristic motifs in the rustic life of Bronowice. Another sketch of this shrine is known, capturing it from two different vantage points (1906).

Woman with a crank handle

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/187

Date of creation: 1906

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 18 × 11 cm

One of many sketches made during the artist’s stay in Bronowice, showing the everyday life of the village that he found so interesting. There is also a drawing which probably depicts the same woman in her headscarf, but shown in profile (At the Well, pencil on paper, 22.5 × 16.5 cm).

Harvesting

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/228

Date of creation: c. 1910

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 31 × 23.5 cm

A sketch for the oil painting Harvest, known from a reproduction in the Warsaw magazine Świat (no. 6 dated 5 February1910). In its final version, the artist removed several female figures, leaving only the three most characteristic ones, to make the composition more intelligible.

Sketch of a man with a scythe

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/188

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 12 × 9 cm

A sketch of a male peasant with a scythe.

Study of human figures

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/189

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 18.5 × 10 cm

Studies of various figures.

Female nude in stockings

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/230

Date of creation: 1911

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 19.5 ×16 cm

A study of a female nude seated in an armchair, wearing black stockings, reading a newspaper – possibly the same model whom Alfons Karpiński depicted in the 1911 painting Female Nude (oil on canvas, Mazovian Museum in Płock). Another version of a study of this model is a sketch in the collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola (MRS-S-232).

Girl

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/229

Date of creation: after 1918

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 21 × 35.5 cm

A sketch of a female figure for the painting Merry-go-round (oil on canvas, National Museum in Warsaw), depicting a girl standing at the wooden fence outside an amusement park, waving a kerchief at a person on the merry-go-round.

Portrait of a woman in a hat

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/237

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 14.5 x 9.8 cm

A bust-length sketch of a woman in a hat, possibly for a painting in the collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola.

Portrait of a woman in a hat

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/238

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 12.5 × 9 cm

A bust-length sketch of a woman in a hat, possibly for a painting in the collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola (MRS/S/259) or for An Interior, known from the postcard published by Wydawnictwo Dzieł Sztuki Stella in Bochnia.

Portrait of a woman

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/320

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 13.5 × 11.8 cm

The Marian Nook in Kraków

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/132

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 29.8 × 20.6 cm

The sketch depicts one of the most painted and drawn parts of Marian Square, known as ‘the Marian Nook’, at the southern entrance to the chancel of Saint Mary’s Basilica in Kraków, featuring the gravestone of the church’s archpresbyter, Father Jacek Łopacki (1690–1761), sculpted in the so called black marble of Dębnik by Francesco Placidi.

Dutch landscape

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/122

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 13 × 20.2 cm

Sketch from a tour of Europe, possibly a memento of the Netherlands, as suggested by the boats and the windmill in the background.

At a church fair

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/310

Date of creation: 1905

Technique: oil on wood

Dimensions: 45 × 55 cm

Karpiński contributed to the phenomenon of the Young Poland movement, taking an active and intense part in Kraków’s cultural life. Like many other artists of the time, he was fascinated by the folklore of the rural areas outside Kraków. His church fair scenes superbly demonstrate his talent for painting, excellent sense of observation, mastery of realistic depiction, and skill in aptly capturing observed situations in the frame of the image.

This work is a dynamic depiction of a church fair, captured in passing, probably in Bielany outside Kraków, at the Camaldolese Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary, of which the outer wall can be seen in the background. This painting laid groundwork for a spectacular large picture in the collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola.

At a church fair

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/288

Date of creation: 1907

Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 122.5 × 148 cm

Before leaving for Vienna, I spent some time living in Bronowice, where I painted pictures on folk subjects. I revisited this subject, which I found very interesting, many times, spending all my school holidays in Bronowice. (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], p. 13)

Karpiński contributed to the phenomenon of the Young Poland movement, taking an active and intense part in Kraków’s cultural life. Like many other artists of the time, he was fascinated by the folklore of the rural areas outside Kraków. His church fair scenes superbly demonstrate his talent for painting, excellent sense of observation, mastery of realistic depiction, and skill in aptly capturing observed situations in the frame of the image. This work is doubtlessly one of his best on this subject. Well known and widely reproduced, the painting was noticed by the critics, who wrote:

Karpiński, like nearly the whole youngest generation of our artists, pays a tribute to the Polish countryside, whose colourfulness and exuberance exert a pull on him. In one of his earliest exhibitions, our attention was attracted by the composition ‘To a Church Fair’ […] which revealed his beautiful, pronounced talent.

Karpiński made sketches in oils during one specific church fair, apparently at the Camaldolese monastery in Bielany outside Kraków, which became the basis for several paintings; one of them is in the collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola (MRS/S/310). At a Church Fair (1907) is a masterly composition, indicative of skill in structuring a large-format canvas.

We also have knowledge of other works in oils which use the same motifs, notably the one from 1911 (At a Market Fair, Stalls, oil on cardboard, private collection).

In 1919, the painting was deposited with the Muzeum Wielkopolskie in Poznań by Roman Janta-Połczyński, as part of a collection of over thirty pictures. The deposit was entered in the museum’s inventory book (MW 23.1919) and the title stated for Karpiński’s painting was Church Fair. The work was returned to the owner in 1948, as was the painting Pilgrims (now in the collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola), which also used to belong to Roman Janta-Połczyński.

Pilgrims

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/375

Date of creation: 1907

Technique: oil and tempera on canvas

Dimensions: 117 × 196 cm

Karpiński contributed to the phenomenon of the Young Poland movement, taking an active and intense part in Kraków’s cultural life. Like many other artists of the time, he was fascinated by the folklore of the rural areas outside Kraków. His church fair or pilgrimage scenes superbly demonstrate his talent for painting, excellent sense of observation, mastery of realistic depiction, and skill in aptly capturing observed situations in the frame of the image. In this masterly composition, one of the most outstanding in Karpiński’s oeuvre, the artist depicts a group of pilgrims headed for Kalwaria Zebrzydowska to attend the celebrations of the parish’s name day (19 August), involving an indulgence and a church fair. The artist adopts an unexpected, cinematic vantage point: the pilgrims are shown with their backs turned to the viewer, as though showing the end of the procession, which the viewer can join and participate in.

Karpiński went on the pilgrimage himself and made a series of pencil sketches, which provided the basis for several sketches in oils (we know five of them). This large-format painting is the final outcome of that process. The artist’s sketchbook, preserved in the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków, contains drawings made during the pilgrimage which were later used to execute canvas paintings reiterating the original idea.

Before leaving for Vienna, I spent some time living in Bronowice, where I painted pictures on folk subjects. I revisited this subject, which I found very interesting, many times, spending all my school holidays in Bronowice. I even walked on foot to Kalwaria, to make sketches for my painting ‘Pilgrims’. (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], p. 13)

We also know of Karpiński’s 1907 oil painting of the road to Kalwaria (private collection), sized 34 × 49.5 cm.

The Sanctuary at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska is one of Poland’s major pilgrimage destinations, due to its miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary of Calvary.

We also know of Karpiński’s 1907 oil painting of the road to Kalwaria (private collection), sized 34 × 49.5 cm.

The painting was deposited with the Muzeum Wielkopolskie in Poznań in 1919, by Roman Janta-Połczyński, along with his whole collection of more than thirty pictures. The deposit was entered in the museum’s inventory book (MW 23.1919). The painting survived the war and was returned to the owner in 1948, as was the picture At a Church Fair. Both Pilgrims and At a Church Fair are now the property of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola.

The Lido Beach

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/372

Date of creation: 1907

Technique: oil on plywood

Dimensions: 14 × 20 cm

During his studies in Vienna, Karpiński made two trips to Venice. In July and August 1907, he painted a series of landscape depictions of the beach at Lido, doubtlessly one of his greatest artistic accomplishments. Most of them are small in size, painted in oils on wood or cardboards as stenographic notes capturing the most essential components of seaside reality observed in the summertime. This superb skill in the use of just a few visual signs stemmed from inspiration drawn from Japanese art and aesthetics. He would later hone it in Paris. Three works from this series are known; the one shown here is owned by the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola; another one is held by the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź; all others are in private collections.

Interior with a fireplace

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/130

Date of creation: 1908

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 20.8 ×15.9 cm

I took lodgings in the Quartier Latin, in a small hotel with an interior that was characteristic of the Paris of that era, so I painted it several times. (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], p. 14)

The artist spent the years 1907–1912 in Paris (with breaks during the winters), where he would often sketch and paint places of interest to him: architecture, bridges, scenes witnessed in the street or in a circus, female models in interiors, and above all his own studio.

This is one of the many intimist sketches of the artist’s Parisian dwelling-cum-studio with its characteristic fireplace, which features in several of his pictorial compositions, notably in his 1918 painting known from the postcard published by Stella of Bochnia, entitled An Interior (61.5 × 52 cm, private collection). The drawing is probably a sketch for the painting In a Room, now at the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola.

In a room

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/259

Date of creation: 1908

Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 56 × 40 cm

The Paris of that time was insanely picturesque; its diversity of impressions and experiences made it extremely exciting artistically. Historic sites, splendid art galleries, all types of human wretchedness camping out under the bridges, artist types, model types, labourers of sundry nationalities and races. The streets with their double-decker omnibuses drawn by three white horses. Small restaurants, cafés and taverns with a clientele direct and easy-going in their behaviour. (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories] pp. 14–15)

Towards the end of the 19th century, many artists created intimate, usually small pictorial compositions showing scenes in interiors, empty rooms, and still lifes. This movement was called intimism. Irrespective of the type and character of these depictions, they emanate silence and calm. Thus frozen in time, these interiors became Karpiński’s favourite subjects for painting, on a par with still lifes. A perfect illustration of the intimist trend in the artist’s work is In a Room, painted in 1908 in Paris, one of several on the subject (see An Interior from 1909, known from the postcard published by Wydawnictwo Dzieł Sztuki Stella in Bochnia, and Woman Seated in an Interior from 1910, reproduced on a postcard issued by Wydawnictwo J. Czernecki in Wieliczka). Sunk in a reverie, the woman sitting in an armchair seems somewhat resigned; her emotional condition is complemented by the clock standing on the mantelpiece, with a mirror as its backdrop. Her carefully composed outfit seems to be a pretext for a play of light and colour.

The artist spent the years 1907–1912 in Paris (with breaks during the winters), involved in very intensive work, looking for a visual language of his own. This is why his Paris works are rendered in various styles, as though their maker had a hard time deciding which one he identified with.

The collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola includes the sketch Interior with a Fireplace (inv. no. MRS/S/130), and also sketches of the model’s head (inv. no. MRS/S/239).

Farewell

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/129

Date of creation: 1907

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 21 × 16.9 cm

The artist spent the years 1907–1912 in Paris (with breaks during the winters), involved in very intensive work, looking for a visual language of his own. During that time he created a number of outstanding works, such as the painting Jane with a Japanese Doll (National Museum in Kraków).

The drawing reproduced here is traditionally believed to be a sketch for the painting Farewell, for which the model Jane probably posed. The pictorial composition, the art-nouveau lines that build up its form, resemble the painting held in the Kraków museum.

The Desa Unicum auction of 14 June 2012 saw the sale of the painting entitled Hania with a Dog (oil on canvas, 87 × 72 cm, private collection), based on the sketch shown here. The work was doubtlessly created in Paris, as we recognize the artist’s studio with its characteristic props: the fireplace and the mirror. The wicker chair features in several other paintings by Karpiński, notably Jane with a Japanese Doll from 1909 (oil on canvas, National Museum in Kraków) and Female Nude from 1911 (oil on canvas, Mazovian Museum in Płock), as well as in his portrait of Bronisława Kumaniecka (gouache and watercolour on paper, private collection).

Portrait of the model Jane

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/279

Date of creation: 1908

Technique: dry pastel on paper

Dimensions: 62.5 × 48.5 cm

One of many portraits of Alfons Karpiński’s favourite model, Jane. He wrote in his memoir: I worked a lot and with zest. Initially, I had a permanent model, Jane, with a very interesting head, full of expression […] (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], p. 18). This pastel portrayal corresponds with the depictions of the model in the collection of the National Museum in Kraków.

The collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola includes several portraits of this model, some of them rendered as prints.

Portrait of a woman in a hat

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/166

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: etching and aquatint on paper

Dimensions: 17.2 × 12.2 cm

In a series of prints made in Paris, Karpiński also portrayed his favourite model, Jane, wearing a decorative hat, truly spectacular. The etchings show inspiration drawn from Japanese woodblock prints in the way the figures are framed in the picture. In this composition, the model gazes intensely at the viewer, commanding all of his or her attention. The collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola includes three prints (etchings) portraying this model.

Woman washing her feet

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/165

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: etching and aquatint on paper

Dimensions: 17.5 × 13 cm

The artist spent the years 1907–1912 in Paris (with breaks during the winters), where he would often sketch and paint places of interest to him: architecture, bridges, scenes witnessed in the street or in a circus, and female models in interiors. Looking for a visual language of his own, he was also interested in printmaking, the effects achievable with black and white. He executed a series of etchings and aquatints depicting women in various situations, e.g. during toilette – washing up, resting in bed – as well as portrait studies. These works show affinity to prints by Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, which the artist was well acquainted with and highly valued (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia, p. 15).

In front of the mirror

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/226

Date of creation: c. 1908

Technique: pencil and ink on paper

Dimensions: 32.8 × 25 cm

Towards the end of the 19th century, many artists created intimate, usually small pictorial compositions showing scenes in interiors, empty rooms, and still lifes. This movement was called intimism. Irrespective of the type and character of these depictions, they emanate silence and calm. Thus frozen in time, these interiors became Karpiński’s favourite subjects for painting, on a par with still lifes. This drawing is both a perfect illustration of the intimist trend in the artist’s work and a sketch for a specific painting.

A bridge on the Seine in Paris

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/125

Date of creation: 1907

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 17 × 14.1 cm

The sketch shows the Pont de l’Archevêché, with a view of the Notre Dame apse (the bridge looks somewhat different today). Karpiński spent the years 1907–1912 in Paris (with breaks during the winters), where he would often sketch and paint places of interest to him. He was particularly fascinated by bridges, their structure and aesthetic presence in the fabric of the city. This is probably why he painted the Pont Neuf (A Bridge in Paris, 1909, oil on canvas, National Museum in Kraków), one of the most popular Paris bridges, the Pont de l’Alma (mentioned in the catalogue of the 1913 exhibition at the Friends of the Fine Arts Society in Poznań), and the Pont Royal in 1922, now in the collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola.

Portrait of Józefina Rogosz-Pieńkowska

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/311

Date of creation: 1908

Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 105 × 87 cm

He has a brilliant ease in composing the picture and shows great skill in posing the model. Admittedly, he is no enthusiast of colour but he is fond of gentle, soft tones and hues. His palette plays a subdued, discreet chord of colours, as it were, one of which sometimes dominates the whole work due to its stronger value. (Franciszek Klein, Z pracowni Alfonsa Karpińskiego’, Czas, no. 40, 1928, p. 3)

Without a doubt, this beautiful painting is one of the most important and valuable in the artist’s portraiture oeuvre. It portrays an extraordinary woman – the poet, author and actress Józefina Rogosz-Pieńkowska (1884–1968), at the time married to the painter Ignacy Pieńkowski. She was the younger sister of another female author, Zofia Rogoszówna. Her first husband was the psychiatrist Roman Zagórski, Pieńkowski was the second, and Stanisław Colonna-Walewski the third. The diversely educated woman was muse to many Young Poland artists. She was portrayed on multiple occasions by her husband, and also the sculptor Stanisław Kazimierz Ostrowski.

Franciszek Klein’s quoted statement is quite relevant to this painting as well. Its history is actually well known as it became the cause of a scandal in society and art circles.

After meeting up with Pieńkowski, we painted models in one studio, and on his initiative also his wife in a glistening salmon-coloured frock. Under some pretext, Pieńkowski put an end to this work, so that I finished the unfinished hands from someone else in Kraków. The picture was the cause of considerable trouble for me.

In 1909, when invited to take part in an exhibition of the ‘Sztuka’ Soc. of Polish Artists, I sent them, among other pieces, the portrait of Mrs. Pieńkowska, which they did not exhibit; It was only later that I understood why. Pieńkowski simply did not want a portrait of his wife painted by anyone else but him to be exhibited.

This resulted in a row, of which I was made aware by a letter from Kowalski. Before the exhibition was opened, Mrs. Pieńkowska visited Wojciech Kossak, chairman of the Friends of the Arts Society, with a demand that the painting be withdrawn, which he refused to do. Stefan Filipkiewicz threatened my brother with unpleasant consequences to me should the painting be exhibited, and also, together with Kamocki and Weiss, wrote to me, by telegraph, urging me to withdraw the picture.

I did no such thing, but apparently I wrote something to Filipkiewicz, because I have a letter from him about this matter, in a conciliatory and very friendly tone. – Moreover, Pieńkowski himself later proposed, in a letter to me, to buy this portrait of his wife, pointing out that it could only be done for a small price because, he asserted, it would not be easy to find a buyer for someone else's portrait these days. (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], pp. 16–17)

The correspondence exchanged with the members of the Society with regard to this painting has also been preserved.

Sunday

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/376

Date of creation: 1909

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 57 × 53 cm

The artist spent the years 1907–1912 in Paris (with breaks during the winters), involved in very intensive work, looking for a visual language of his own. This is why his Paris works are rendered in various styles, as though their maker had a hard time deciding which one he identified with. Those experiments are well exemplified by this Paris landscape discovered in 2003, entitled Sunday. We know only a handful of his pictures painted in a similar manner, such as A Lane in Old Paris (oil on cardboard, 36.5 × 27.5 cm, private collection) and Streets of the City (shaded) from 1910, reproduced by Wydawnictwo Dzieł Sztuki Stella in Bochnia.

Circus act in the streets of Paris

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/278

Date of creation: 1910

Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 43 × 51,5 cm

The artist spent the years 1907–1912 in Paris (with breaks during the winters), involved in very intensive work, looking for a visual language of his own. This is why his Paris works are rendered in various styles, as though their maker had a hard time deciding which one he identified with. This very creative period is considered the best in his work. He documented the life of Paris streets, circuses, and cafés, both places and people.

The Paris of that time was insanely picturesque; its diversity of impressions and experiences made it extremely exciting artistically. Historic sites, splendid art galleries, all types of human wretchedness camping out under the bridges, artist types, model types, labourers of sundry nationalities and races. The streets with their double-decker omnibuses drawn by three white horses. Small restaurants, cafés and taverns with a clientele direct and easy-going in their behaviour. (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories] pp. 14–15)

Circus held a special fascination for Karpiński, which is why he dedicated several paintings to it, notably Circus in the Garden in 1908 (oil on cardboard, private collection) and Circus in Paris in 1910 (oil on cardboard, National Museum in Kraków). The picture reproduced here shows a street circus act captured from a frog’s perspective, so characteristic for pictorial compositions inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, a painting manner resembling the work of Bonnard.

Pont Royal

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/276

Date of creation: 1922

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 48 × 37 cm

This beautiful landscape, capturing an impression in grey hues, inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, is one of the artist’s several works depicting bridges on the Seine. It shows the Pont Royal as it was in 1922, during Karpiński’s first visit to Paris with his wife. It was also that year that he met Olga Boznańska in person.

The Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola holds a sketch of the Pont de l’Archevêché (inv. no. MRS/S/125).

Portrait of a young woman

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/191

Date of creation: c. 1925

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 100 × 70 cm

In the 1920s and 1930s, Karpiński placed his models in various ‘stage sets’, e.g. in the interiors of bourgeois parlours, featuring wall mirrors, dressing tables and various decorative objects – ceramics, paintings, clocks, and photographs; he also depicted them against neutral backgrounds, to focus the viewer’s attention on the portrayed figure.

This portrait is one of many that he painted on commission. The young woman has paused her reading for a while to pose for a painting.

Portrait of a woman

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/171

Date of creation: 1932

Technique: pastel on cardboard

Dimensions: 64 × 50.5 cm

The vivid beauty of the female figure, the charm of the body, the finesse of movement and gaze, combined with a splendidly developed painting technique – this is the essence of Karpiński’s art. (Franciszek Klein, ‘Z pracowni Alfonsa Karpińskiego’, Czas, no. 40, 1928, p. 3)

The Young Poland’s femme fatale, Parisian female models, actresses, or women representative of cultural or bourgeois Kraków were the most important subject of Karpiński’s paintings. This painter of beautiful women made a lot of portraits on commission, and the picture reproduced here is among his finer works.

Portrait of a woman

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/35

Date of creation: 1941

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 65 × 48 cm

A portrait of an anonymous middle-aged woman, painted in 1941. One of many portrayals created on commission, which – along with still lifes – where the artist’s primary source of sustenance.

Portrait of a man in spectacles

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/270

Date of creation: 1924

Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 71.5 × 62.5 cm

Karpiński is perhaps erroneously regarded as a painter only of women and still lifes. One should note that he painted a number of interesting portraits of men, which seem considerably more interesting artistically than those depicting Kraków ladies or actresses. This was noted by critics, for example one writing about his portrayal of Jerzy Mycielski:

This portrait has all the advantages of a work worthy of galleries in the best meaning of the word. (Artur Schroeder, ‘Alfons Karpiński’, Sztuki Piękne, no. 7, 1927/1928)

In the 1920s and 1930s, the artist painted a number of portraits of Kraków’s and Poland’s prominent figures, such as the art historian Jerzy Mycielski; Feliks Kopera, director of the National Museum in Kraków; Karol Rolle, Kraków’s mayor; Edward Raczyński, collector and patron of the arts; the actor Ludwik Solski, and Ignacy Mościcki, President of the Republic of Poland.

The work reproduced here – showing a concentrated man, sunk in thought – is a portrait of a member of Kraków’s intelligentsia, possibly a professor of the Jagiellonian University.

Young boy in a sailor suit

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/277

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 70 × 56 cm

Karpiński sporadically agreed to paint portraits of children. We know of just a few such portrayals, painted on commission, e.g. the 1931 twin depictions of the granddaughter and grandson of Kraków’s deputy mayor Józef Sare, Helena and Andrzej. The boy in the sailor suit is an interesting painting, excellently composed in pictorial terms, with a nondescript background, including a mirror and a bouquet of yellow flowers, a colourful fabric on the sofa, and the boy somewhat at a loss, gazing intently at the viewer. The manner in which it is painted, and its emotional aura, resemble child portraits by Olga Boznańska, whose work the artist knew quite well.

Portrait of a man in spectacles

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/370

Date of creation: 1952

Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 99.5 × 73.5 cm

Karpiński is perhaps erroneously regarded as a painter only of women and still lifes. One should note that he painted a number of interesting portraits of men, which seem considerably more interesting artistically than those depicting Kraków ladies or actresses. This is well demonstrated by this portrait of an anonymous man in spectacles, seated in an armchair in the painter’s studio, against a backdrop formed by the well-known props – a mirror in a golden frame and a porcelain figurine. Made in 1952, the painting may be of a young party activist, who evidently feels alienated in these artistic and bourgeois surroundings. We know that, during that period, the artist also painted the Portrait of Comrade O. (Museum of Opole Silesia in Opole).

The painting is currently one of the latest works by the artists in the museum’s collection.

Żabusia (Froggie)

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/374

Date of creation: 1924

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 23 × 40 cm

Like many other artists – notably Wojciech Weiss and Pierre Bonnard – Alfons Karpiński was a cat enthusiast. Cats accompanied him in his atelier, as shown in his latest Self-portrait in the Studio from 1960 (National Museum in Szczecin), and sometimes even replaced models, posing for ‘portraits’.

I was snatched from my reverie by a sudden movement: it was Fifi, a white fluffy Angora cat, Karpiński’s inaccessible friend. It unceremoniously jumped onto my lap, then onto my shoulder and, leaning against my head, purred some secrets into my ear. Having placed it back on my lap and stroking its fluffy fur, I took a long look at it. I could not help thinking that this cat with its soundless, soft, light and sensual movements is to some extent a symbol of Karpiński’s art. Animals are known to assimilate their own character to the disposition of a human being, and sometimes inadvertent similarities or affinities arise between man and animal. It appears to me that this artist’s painting has a lot of similarity to the characteristics of a cat. (Franciszek Klein, ‘Sylwetki artystyczne. Alfons Karpiński’, Tęcza, no. 17, 1928, p. 12)

This apt observation by Franciszek Klein seems to illustrate excellently both the artist’s approach to cats and the character of his art.

The collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola includes both the oil sketch of Żabunia that is reproduced here and pencil sketches from 1924 (inv. no. MRS/S/124).

We also know of other cat depictions by Karpiński, mostly in private collections, e.g. Interior with a White Cat, 1928 (oil on canvas), Little White Cat (Oil on cardboard, collection of Krzysztof Musiał), Fifi (oil on cardboard), White Cat (oil on plywood), Siamese Cat (oil on cardboard), She-Cat (oil on cardboard), Cat (oil on cardboard), Zula (watercolour and pencil on paper), and Sleeping Cat (collection of Jerzy Stelmach).

Żabunia (Froggie)

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/124

Date of creation: 1929

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 20.2 × 14.6 cm

Like many other artists – notably Wojciech Weiss and Pierre Bonnard – Alfons Karpiński was a cat enthusiast. They accompanied him in his atelier, as shown in his latest Self-portrait in the Studio from 1960 (National Museum in Szczecin), and sometimes even replaced models, posing for ‘portraits’. The collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola includes both the pencil sketch of a coiled-up sleeping Żabunia that is reproduced here and its depiction in oils from 1924.

Yellow roses

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/36

Date of creation: 1920s-30s

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 34 × 48 cm

In addition to portraiture of women, still lifes where the other most important subject of Karpiński’s paintings, which the artist rendered in several varieties. He would usually depict a piece of the parlour interior with focus on a vase holding a bouquet of flowers – yellow, pink and white roses, peonies, chrysanthemums, or poppies – complemented with ceramics, a mirror, Japanese figurines, and paintings on the wall. He devoted special attention to flowers because they were an important, intriguing inspiration for him. He said in an interview given to Franciszek Klein:

When the spring comes, I buy armfuls of roses every couple of days; I just can’t do without them. They are a school of colour for me. I owe a lot to their subtle tones. No one would understand how many subtle hues and half-tones can be found in a single rose flower. Seemingly that is something that you don’t even see. It’s only when you begin to paint that you notice the width of the range of tones and half-tones that make up the rich dress of this royal flower. So it is with genuine passion and special care that I devote time to studies of flowers. And it is doubly important to me because the study of flowers is very helpful in portraying women. Because I never forget what a portrait of an elegant lady is. In addition to natural gracefulness and beauty, how much craft and care, how many whims and moods of fashion woman’s nature requires. (Franciszek Klein, ‘W pracowni Alfonsa Karpińskiego’, Czas, no. 40, 1928, p. 3)

Still lifes with yellow roses form the largest group within Alfons Karpiński’s painting oeuvre, possibly due to the fact that they became the primary source of sustenance for his family.

I began to paint flowers and interiors for myself but it turned out that people liked those pictures a lot and that saved me on many an occasion when material need raised its head. (Alfons Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], p. 27)

They can be found in private and museum collections alike. To this day, they adorn the interiors of many Kraków homes. The collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola also includes white roses in a Chinese vase (MRS/S/314) and anemones (MRS/S/318).

Their popularity is further demonstrated by the fact that, as early as the 1930s, a lot of fake Karpiński paintings of flowers were in circulation. He wrote in his memoir:

Forgeries of my work surfaced on the market; I spotted a few myself. I ascertained that Wojtowicz’s shop was selling such forgeries. I sued him and… I lost. The court ruled that the shop owner had no obligation to be an expert on the works of art that he offered for sale.(A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], p. 29)

Anemones

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/318

Date of creation: 1920s–30s

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 35.5 × 48.5 cm

The artist painted various flowers; in addition to roses, which became his hallmark, he created compositions comprising anemones, zinnias, poppies, nasturtiums, marigolds, camomile daisies, as well as forsythias, azaleas, and mimosas. As it was aptly observed:

Karpiński enjoyed and still enjoys painting flowers. He can feel their softness, the fragility of their stems, the delicacy of their petals, their scent even. (Artur Schroeder, ‘Alfons Karpiński’, Sztuki Piękne, no. 7, 1927/1928)

Those paintings were the artist’s main source of income, as he noted:

The twenty years between the wars for a painter like me, without a permanent source of income, was a period of meandering between painting for art’s sake and painting to make a living. (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], p. 28)

White roses

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/314

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 40 × 49.5 cm

I paid a visit to my old friend, the painter Alfons Karpiński. As usual, I found him busy at work. A small picture on his easel, almost finished – a nook in a painter’s atelier: a Chinese teapot on a small table, next to it a cup, a red porcelain vase, rather oddly shaped, and a handful of dry tiny white flowers. That is the whole picture. Not much apparently, and then all of that makes up a lovely harmony, especially on a canvas. (Franciszek Klein, ‘W pracowni Alfonsa Karpińskiego’, Czas, no. 40, 1928, p. 3).

When arranging still lifes, Karpiński used the same set of props: a Chinese vase and cups, porcelain figurines, a mirror, and decorative boxes. He depicted flowers in full bloom, sometimes slightly withered, with falling petals. Light reflexes and reflections are a significant component in these compositions.

Interior with a piano

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/368

Date of creation: 1920 (?)

Technique: oil on wood

Dimensions: 36 × 24 cm

Towards the end of the 19th century, many artists created intimate, usually small pictorial compositions showing scenes in interiors, empty rooms, and still lifes. This movement was called intimism. Irrespective of the type and character of these depictions, they emanate silence and calm. Thus frozen in time, these interiors became Karpiński’s favourite subjects for painting, on a par with still lifes. In this simple and beautiful painting, the artist uses a well-known ploy: an uninvited viewer is peeking into a parlour through an open door partly obscured by a curtain; inside, we can see a grand piano against the backdrop of a wall decorated with a portrait; a crystal chandelier is suspended from the ceiling. Despite the decorative objects, the parlour gives off a sense of tranquilly, stability, and joy of life.

This special ambience is created by Karpiński with his characteristic manner of painting: he uses delicate sfumato, blurring the outlines, fusing the carefully-arranged props with the space of the interior. He would often depict modest interiors with a fireplace and a mirror, their atmosphere generated by light reflexes and reflections.

Interior with a sculpture

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/225

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 33.8 × 48 cm

[…] it is a characteristic of Karpiński that he is able to pick up such neutral trifles and get a new, quiet life out of them […]

Karpiński avoids harsh dissonances, cheap tricks, loud tones of colour; he avoids realism in general and instead looks at the world through the dimmed window of his studio. That is where all of the artist’s creative work is confined; here is where successions of elegant ladies pose for him; here is where he makes his most beautiful depictions of ‘still lifes’, which are indeed nothing else than the various parts of his studio. (Franciszek Klein, ‘Sylwetki artystyczne. Alfons Karpiński’, Tęcza, no. 17, 1928, p. 11)

This unusual painting, exceptional in the artist’s work, appears to be a sketch of those ‘neutral remnants’ that wait for a new life. The protagonist here is a gypsum cast of a sculpture by the 15th-century artist Francesco da Laurana. It is featured for the first time in Karpiński’s works created in the decades between the world wars.

Old cottage in Płaszów

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/223

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: watercolour on paper

Dimensions: 22 × 16 cm

The scale of Karpiński’s artistic talent and skills is also demonstrated by this study of a ruined cottage in the village of Płaszów (now a part of Kraków).

Landscape with a road

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/222

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: watercolour on paper

Dimensions: 29 × 21.5 cm

The scale of Karpiński’s artistic talent and skills is demonstrated by this unusual landscape capturing an impression, featuring a road and a wicker fence, constructed of just a few areas of colour, not unlike Japanese paintings on silk.

Sentry

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/316

Date of creation: 1915

Technique: pencil and watercolour on paper/cardboard

Dimensions: 34 × 47.5 cm

The war years of 1914–19, on account of my being an officer, pulled me away from my work again. I only spent 7 weeks on the front; afterwards, due to those connections, I no longer went to the front but did service behind the front lines, which, however, took up nearly all of my time. I stayed mostly in Kraków, e.g. I was the commandant of the hospitals, or – which actually had something to do with my profession – commandant of the Kriegsgraberabteilung based at Wawel. There were 10 of us painters, each of a different nationality. Two Poles beside me, Uziembło and Jach. Our job was to paint war cemeteries and graves, which entailed ongoing field trips. – Our works were exhibited at the Friends of the Fine Arts Society and in Vienna. (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia, [Memories] pp. 26–27)

During the First World War, Alfons Karpiński served in the Austrian Army, initially on the front line and subsequently in the painting team of the War Graves Department, with the task of documenting war cemeteries and graves in Western Galicia. This is when his suggestive series of compositions in charcoal, pastels and watercolours was created, depicting cemeteries and graves, in which, however, the documentary function was only of secondary importance. This episode in Karpiński’s artistic life is practically unknown.

The collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola includes three works illustrating this period, such as this study of a soldier guarding the prison door (see also inv. nos. MRS/S/224 and MRS/S/290).

Another sketch of this drawing is known, entitled Austrian Soldier, from 1915 (pencil and crayons on paper, private collection).

The Gorlice offensive: Trenches outside Tuchów and soldiers’ graves

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/290

Date of creation: 1916

Technique: oil on canvas and cardboard

Dimensions: 25 × 69 cm

The war years of 1914–19, on account of my being an officer, pulled me away from my work again. I only spent 7 weeks on the front; afterwards, due to those connections, I no longer went to the front but did service behind the front lines, which, however, took up nearly all of my time. I stayed mostly in Kraków, e.g. I was the commandant of the hospitals, or – which actually had something to do with my profession – commandant of the Kriegsgraberabteilung based at Wawel. There were 10 of us painters, each of a different nationality. Two Poles beside me, Uziembło and Jach. Our job was to paint war cemeteries and graves, which entailed ongoing field trips. – Our works were exhibited at the Friends of the Fine Arts Society and in Vienna. (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia, [Memories] pp. 26–27)

During the First World War, Alfons Karpiński served in the Austrian Army, initially on the front line and subsequently in the painting team of the War Graves Department, with the task of documenting war cemeteries and graves in Western Galicia. This is when his suggestive series of compositions in charcoal, pastels and watercolours was created, depicting cemeteries and graves, in which, however, the documentary function was only of secondary importance. This episode in Karpiński’s artistic life is practically unknown.

The collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola contains three works illustrating this period, including this nostalgic winter landscape with a cross and graves.

Study of a soldier

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/224

Date of creation: 1916

Technique: watercolour and pencil on paper

Dimensions: 21.5 × 33 cm

The war years of 1914–19, on account of my being an officer, pulled me away from my work again. I only spent 7 weeks on the front; afterwards, due to those connections, I no longer went to the front but did service behind the front lines, which, however, took up nearly all of my time. I stayed mostly in Kraków, e.g. I was the commandant of the hospitals, or – which actually had something to do with my profession – commandant of the Kriegsgraberabteilung based at Wawel. There were 10 of us painters, each of a different nationality. Two Poles beside me, Uziembło and Jach. Our job was to paint war cemeteries and graves, which entailed ongoing field trips. – Our works were exhibited at the Friends of the Fine Arts Society and in Vienna. (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia, [Memories] pp. 26–27)

During the First World War, Alfons Karpiński served in the Austrian Army, initially on the front line and subsequently in the painting team of the War Graves Department, with the task of documenting war cemeteries and graves in Western Galicia. This is when his suggestive series of compositions in charcoal, pastels and watercolours was created, depicting cemeteries and graves, in which, however, the documentary function was only of secondary importance. This episode in Karpiński’s artistic life is practically unknown.

The collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola contains three works illustrating this period, including this watercolour study of a soldier in a field.

Nude model

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/315

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: oil on fibreboard

Dimensions: 60 × 49.5 cm

In the 1920s, Karpiński placed his female models in the interiors of bourgeois parlours, featuring wall mirrors, dressing tables and various decorative objects – ceramics, paintings, clocks, and photographs. Over time, Karpiński began to idealize the women he depicted, creating schematic and conventional portrayals.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the artist created a series of paintings of nude models – reclining or seated on the sofa in his studio – whose form and manner of painting show affinity to Pierre Bonnard’s nudes.

The artist’s wife

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/131

Date of creation: 1920

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 21.5 × 18 cm

Władysława Karpińska née Chmielarczyk (1900–1955), younger daughter of advocate Władysław Chmielarczyk and Helena Chmielarczyk née Kwiatkowska, became the artist’s wife in 1918. In 1906, she was portrayed together with her sister Helena by a friend of the family, Olga Boznańska.

Still wearing a uniform, a Polish one by then, I got married in November 1918. My wife was an advocate’s daughter and my junior by 25 years. For the preceding two years, I had lived at Floriańska Street, where, as usual, I did not have a studio, but only a room with a large window […]

I painted my wife 20 or so times. She never had any objections to the way she looked in the picture. What she hated, though, was when people commented on various nudes or studies, saying that this must be the wife, so she was later reluctant to pose. (Alfons Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], pp. 27, 29)

The drawing reproduced here, showing the artist’s wife reading in a relaxed pose on a sofa in the parlour, is probably a sketch for an oil painting, one of many depicting Władysława Karpińska. The collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola also includes a portrait of the artist’s wife rendered as a print (inv. no. MRS/S/168).

Seated female nude in stockings

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/232

Date of creation: c. 1911

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 19.5 × 16 cm

A study of a female nude seated in a relaxed pose in an armchair, wearing black stockings, looking straight at the viewer – possibly the same model whom Alfons Karpiński depicted in the 1911 painting Female Nude (oil on canvas, Mazovian Museum in Płock). For another version of a study of this model, see the sketch in the collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola (inv. no. MRS/S/230).

Reclining nude

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/236

Date of creation: 1911

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 16.5 × 20 cm

The reclining female nude with her arms under her head is probably a sketch for the 1911 painting Female Nude (oil on canvas, Mazovian Museum in Płock). For other versions of a study of this model, see the drawings in collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola (inv. nos. MRS/S/230 and MRS/S/232).

Nude model

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/234

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 20.5 × 17 cm

In Paris in 1908, Karpiński drew several nude studies of a young female model whose initials were G.S. The figure is rendered in decisive supple lines; what also commands attention is the characteristic ‘tight’ frame, indicative of inspirations drawn from Japanese art. The collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola includes two other sketches of this model.

Seated female nude

Owner: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola

Inventory number: MRS/S/233

Date of creation: 1908

Technique: pencil on paper

Dimensions: 20.5 × 17 cm

In Paris in 1908, Karpiński drew several nude studies of a young female model whose initials were G.S. The collection of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola includes two other sketches of this model.

Self-portrait in the studio

Owner: Krzysztof Musiał

Date of creation: c. 1910

Technique: oil on wood

Dimensions: 61 x 49 cm

One of only a few known self-portraits of the artist, all the more interesting for showing him in his studio, at work, in front of the easel. A mirror and a sofa can be seen in the background, the latter a prop in many of his works, here covered with a white blanket.

Yellows flowers

Owner: Krzysztof Musiał

Date of creation: 1927

Technique: watercolours on paper

Dimensions: 33 x 46 cm

In addition to portraiture of women, still lifes where the other most important subject of Karpiński’s paintings, which the artist rendered in several varieties. He would usually depict a piece of the parlour interior with focus on a vase holding a bouquet of flowers – yellow, pink and white roses, peonies, chrysanthemums, or poppies – complemented with ceramics, a mirror, Japanese figurines, and paintings on the wall. He devoted special attention to flowers because they were an important, intriguing inspiration for him, and provided an equally important source of sustenance.

I began to paint flowers and interiors for myself but it turned out that people liked those pictures a lot and that saved me on many an occasion when material need raised its head. (A. Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], p. 27)

The watercolour composition reproduced here is excellent testimony to the artist’s talent, demonstrating his skill in capturing the delicate, variable structure of flowers.

Fragment of a room with a still life

Owner: Krzysztof Musiał

Date of creation: c. 1910

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 13.5 x 13.7 cm

One of many intimist sketches in oils depicting the interior of the artist’s dwelling/studio in Kraków, with a sofa covered with a light-coloured blanket, a characteristic prop in many works by Karpiński. Arranged on the table in the background are other objects – an azure teapot with a cup and yellow flowers – frequent features in his portraits and still lifes.

Still life with a teacup

Owner: Krzysztof Musiał

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 33 x 70 cm

In addition to portraiture of women, still lifes where the other most important subject of Karpiński’s paintings, which the artist rendered in several varieties. The best-known ones depict a piece of the parlour interior with focus on a vase holding a bouquet of flowers – yellow, pink and white roses, peonies, chrysanthemums, or poppies – complemented with ceramics, a mirror, Japanese figurines, and paintings on the wall. But Karpiński also painted synthetic still lifes, void of these accessories: sophisticated studies of blue-and-white pottery and fruit.

Prometheus

Owner: National Museum in Kraków

Inventory number: MNK II-b-2452

Date of creation: 1898

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 71 × 99 cm

Karpiński contributed to the phenomenon of the Young Poland movement, taking an active and intense part in Kraków’s cultural life. Like many other artists of the time, he was fascinated by the folklore of the rural areas outside Kraków, and also by symbolic themes and atmosphere. These tendencies are excellently illustrated by the artist’s earliest known painting, Prometheus (National Museum in Kraków), the only one on a mythological subject in all of his oeuvre.

A landscape

Owner: National Museum in Kraków

Inventory number: MNK II-b-2625

Date of creation: 1902 ?

Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 48 × 55.5 cm

Only a few landscapes by Karpiński are known. This ambient view is illustrative of the artist’s Young Poland fascinations and explorations. The wall around a cemetery, the tall trees, and the intensely luminous sky evoke sadness and anxiety.

Portrait of the artist’s father

Owner: Jacek Malczewski Museum in Radom

Inventory number: Spm 181

Date of creation: 1921

Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 136 × 95.2 cm

Alfons Karpiński (?–?), the artist’s father, was a judge at the court in Rozwadów, and subsequently in Wadowice and Kraków. The portrait was painted at the start of the 20th century, possibly from a photograph.

White kitty

Owner: Krzysztof Musiał

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 35 x 35 cm

Like many other artists – notably Wojciech Weiss and Pierre Bonnard – Alfons Karpiński was a cat enthusiast. They accompanied him in his atelier, as shown in his latest Self-portrait in the Studio from 1960 (National Museum in Szczecin), and sometimes even replaced models, posing for ‘portraits’.

I was snatched from my reverie by a sudden movement: it was Fifi, a white fluffy Angora cat, Karpiński’s inaccessible friend. It unceremoniously jumped onto my lap, then onto my shoulder and, leaning against my head, purred some secrets into my ear. Having placed it back on my lap and stroking its fluffy fur, I took a long look at it. I could not help thinking that this cat with its soundless, soft, light and sensual movements is to some extent a symbol of Karpiński’s art. Animals are known to assimilate their own character to the disposition of a human being, and sometimes inadvertent similarities or affinities arise between man and animal. It appears to me that this artist’s painting has a lot of similarity to the characteristics of a cat. (Franciszek Klein, ‘Sylwetki artystyczne. Alfons Karpiński’, Tęcza, no. 17, 1928, p. 12)

This apt observation by Franciszek Klein seems to illustrate excellently both the artist’s approach to cats and the character of his art.

Portrait of the artist’s wife

Owner: National Museum in Kraków

Inventory number: MNK II-b-197

Date of creation: 1921

Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 110 × 121 cm

Władysława Karpińska née Chmielarczyk (1900–1955), nicknamed Lala, younger daughter of advocate Władysław Chmielarczyk and Helena Chmielarczyk née Kwiatkowska, became the artist’s wife in 1918. In 1906, she was portrayed together with her sister Helena by a friend of the family, Olga Boznańska.

Still wearing a uniform, a Polish one by then, I got married in November 1918. My wife was an advocate’s daughter and my junior by 25 years. For the preceding two years, I had lived at Floriańska Street, where, as usual, I did not have a studio, but only a room with a large window […]

I painted my wife 20 or so times. She never had any objections to the way she looked in the picture. What she hated, though, was when people commented on various nudes or studies, saying that this must be the wife, so she was later reluctant to pose. (Alfons Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], pp. 27, 29)

The painting reproduced here, portraying his wife in a parlour, seated in a relaxed pose on a sofa and partly reflected in a mirror, is perhaps one of the most important depictions of her rendered by Karpiński. The painter seems to be playing with colour and reflection.

Portrait of the artist’s wife

Owner: National Museum in Kraków

Inventory number: MNK II-b-169

Date of creation: 1922

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 96.6 × 57.5 cm

Władysława Karpińska née Chmielarczyk (1900–1955), nicknamed Lala, younger daughter of advocate Władysław Chmielarczyk and Helena Chmielarczyk née Kwiatkowska, became the artist’s wife in 1918. In 1906, she was portrayed together with her sister Helena by a friend of the family, Olga Boznańska.

Still wearing a uniform, a Polish one by then, I got married in November 1918. My wife was an advocate’s daughter and my junior by 25 years. For the preceding two years, I had lived at Floriańska Street, where, as usual, I did not have a studio, but only a room with a large window […]

I painted my wife 20 or so times. She never had any objections to the way she looked in the picture. What she hated, though, was when people commented on various nudes or studies, saying that this must be the wife, so she was later reluctant to pose. (Alfons Karpiński, Wspomnienia [Memories], pp. 27, 29)

This unpretentious, relaxed portrayal of the artist’s wife, in a fur coat and a chic, fashionable hat with a rose, probably captured as she is getting ready to go out, is one of the best portraits by Karpiński.

Reclining nude

Date of creation: n.d.

Technique: sketch

Dimensions: 16 × 20 cm

The artist spent the years 1907–1912 in Paris (with breaks during the winters), involved in very intensive work, looking for a visual language of his own. During that time he created a number of outstanding works, such as the painting Jane with a Japanese Doll (National Museum in Kraków), in addition to numerous sketches and studies of women in his studio. The work reproduced here is one of the finest among these.