Tadeusz DWORZAŃSKI (1911-1991), Monument to Jan Sobieski in Lazienki Park, 1957

two-color woodcut, paper, 41 x 30 cm (print), 50 x 35 cm (sheet dimensions); signed, described and dated in pencil l. d.: Warsaw, - Sobieski Monument | p. d.: T. Dworzanski 57(?); l. d. bound monogram "TD" reflected in the composition.

Tadeusz Dworzanski was interested in painting and printmaking from an early age. As early as 1927, at the age of 16, he participated in an exhibition of graphics in Poznań. In 1940-1945, while he was a prisoner of war officer in the oflags in Neubrandenburg and Gross-Born, he came into contact with Lieutenant Jan Zamoyski, also a Defender of the Coast, already recognized in Poland and abroad before the war as a painter, stage designer and decorator from an artistic grouping - the Brotherhood of St. Luke. Jan Zamoyski organized cultural life in the oflag by giving lectures on art, working in the camp theater as a stage designer and actor. He also conducted high-level courses in drawing and painting for fellow captives. In the studio of Jan Zamoyski, taking advantage of the lectures of this distinguished artist, Tadeusz Dworzanski completed the Academic Type School in the full scope of the three-year program of the Academy of Fine Arts, as well as the Three-Year Course in Applied Graphics. Thanks to the skills he acquired then and the authorization to practice as a visual artist, he was able to work professionally as an art appraiser and graphic designer at the Visual Arts Laboratories and at the Vocational Education Publishers upon his return to the country in 1946. In 1948, he became the head of the Graphic Arts Studio at the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare - Department of Publishing and Posters of Occupational Safety and Health in Warsaw. From 1951, he worked at the Visual Arts Laboratories as an art appraiser, an assistant to the Graphic Arts Studio, acting director for artistic affairs, and then as head of the Slides Studio. In 1954, at the request of the Directorate of State Vocational Education Publishers, he was transferred to the same Enterprise as an art appraiser. As a graphic designer, he designed posters and covers and illustrations for textbooks. He worked until the end of his life at home, creating oil paintings, watercolors and woodcuts. His favorite subjects were horses, flowers and landscapes. He participated in exhibitions and competitions in Warsaw, Gliwice, Berlin. In 1963 he became a member of the ZAiKS Society of Authors, and since 1964 a member of the Association of Publishers and Friends of Books.