Watercolor on paper, signed lower left “Tondos.”
Dimensions with frame: 70x56 cm (43x32 cm)
Stanisław Tondos (Kraków 1854–1917 Kraków) – Polish landscape painter. He studied from 1869 to 1875 at the School of Fine Arts under the guidance of Jan Matejko and Władysław Łuszczkiewicz, and continued his studies in Vienna and Munich. The artist primarily painted watercolors depicting cityscapes (vedute), though he also worked in oils and pastels. He most frequently depicted Kraków, but also painted Warsaw, Poznań, and Lviv; he traveled to Venice, Vienna, Nuremberg, and Magdeburg to work. His works have contemporary documentary value, as they illustrate the appearance of buildings and entire architectural complexes that no longer exist. Stanisław Tondos was an advocate for promoting art through postcards; his works were popularized in this form by the publishing house Salon Malarzy Polskich. In 1886, in collaboration with Juliusz Kossak, he published a portfolio of prints titled *The Gems of the City of Kraków*, containing reproductions of 24 watercolors. Later, together with Wojciech Kossak, he published further series of watercolors: St. Mary’s Church in Kraków (1892), Wawel: Treasury of the Past, Seat of the Piasts and Jagiellons (1910), and Kraków: The Legions (1915–1917). In Kraków, he exhibited at the Society of Friends of the Fine Arts, and in Warsaw at the Zachęta Society and the Krywult Salon. He received gold medals at postcard exhibitions in Warsaw and Paris in 1900, and he also served as artistic director of the magazine *Świat*.
