Waclaw Borowski, CHILD WITH KINGS

75.3 x 60.2cm - pastel, paper

Signed l.d.: WBorowski [initials tied].
On the back, on the so-called "backing" l.g. sticker (in ink): "Child | with rabbits"; next to it (in pink chalk): 5173.

Waclaw Borowski (Lodz 1885 - Lodz 1954) - painter, graphic artist, stage designer - studied painting under Józef Mehoffer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow in 1905-1909 and, in parallel, art history at Jagiellonian University. From 1909 to 1913 he stayed in Paris. Fascinated by old painting, he copied many paintings in museums. In the period 1911-1914, he traveled to Italy, studying Renaissance art. He spent the years 1914-1919 in Switzerland. After returning to Poland, he lived in Warsaw, where he was a professor of painting and composition at the Institute of Visual Arts from 1927 to 1933. Active in many fields, he was active in easel painting, decorative wall painting (including polychromes at the Royal Castle, the Old Town Square in Warsaw), printmaking (three portfolios of lithographs), designing posters, book illustrations and stage designs for the theaters of Warsaw, Krakow and Lodz. He was co-founder and president of the "Rhythm" group, a member of the Association of Graphic Artists "Rhythm", and belonged to the Society of Polish Artists "Art". He exhibited a lot both at home and abroad, and his works were repeatedly awarded medals and prizes. Borowski's work belongs to the "classicizing" current of Polish painting, associated, among others, with artists gathered around the "Rhythm" group. His paintings are distinguished both by the striving for synthesis and a kind of simplification and even a certain geometrization of forms, as well as by the softness and statics of compositional systems, based on the rhythm of movement, lines and planes. The impression of silence, order and harmony is sustained by soft light and subtle pastel colors that co-create a lyrical mood of serene melancholy.