Dimensions: 198 x 143 cm
Signed and dated p.d.: 'Z. Sokolowski. | 1884.'
on the painting loom a paper conservationist's sticker
State of conservation
attached to the painting is a documentation of conservation and restoration work by Piotr Dybalski dated 2023
Provenance
private collection, Poznan
Exhibited
Society of Friends of Fine Arts, Lviv, 1885
Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, Warsaw, 1884
Society of Friends of Fine Arts, Cracow, 1884
Literature
Jolanta Polanowska, Urszula Makowska, Sokołowski Zygmunt, in: Słownik artystów polskich i obcych w Polsce działających (zmarłych przed 1966 r.). Painters, sculptors, graphic artists, vol. XI, edited by Urszula Makowska, Warsaw 2023, p. 433 (mentioned)
cf. Halina Blak, Barbara Małkiewicz, Elżbieta Wojtałowa, Malarstwo polskie XIX wieku, catalog of collections, ed. Zofia Gołubiew, National Museum in Cracow, Cracow 2001, p. 323 (ill.), cat. no. 900 (Dawid grający na harfie, 1884, National Museum in Cracow, inv. no. MNK II-a-273 (12 114))
Janina Wiercińska, Catalogue of works exhibited at the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw in the years 1860-1914, Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków 1969, p. 341
Emmanuel Świeykowski, Memoir of the Society of Friends of the Fine Arts in Cracow 1854-1904, Cracow 1905, p. 145 (mentioned in the list of works)
Report of the Directorate of the Society for the Friends of the Fine Arts in Cracow on its activities for the year 1884, Cracow 1885, R. XXX, p. 11, cat. no. 220
Biogram
Emmanuel Swieykowski's Memoirs of the Society of Friends of Fine Arts gives as Zygmunt Sokolowski's birthplace only the name of the geographical land - Poznańskie. It is known that the artist was initially educated at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow, where he came into contact with Jan Matejko. He then emigrated to Munich, where he in turn studied with Alexander Wagner. In 1881, he settled permanently in Paris. He painted monumental historical scenes in the spirit of academism, among which he became famous for his paintings "Joseph sold by his brothers" (1883) and "Saul and David" (1884). His work, however, is dominated by landscapes, both oil and watercolor, as well as stylized genre compositions maintained in the style of 19th-century French historicism - street scenes or depictions of interiors and salons. Sokolowski exhibited his works at the Cracow Society of Friends of Fine Arts, Warsaw's Zachęta Gallery, as well as in France. The artist's premature death interrupted his promising career as a painter.
