Jozef BRANDT (1841-1915), Fragment from the painting "Fair in Balta"

oil, canvas; 49 x 60.5 cm;
inscription p.d.: JB (monogram);
On the reverse, sticker from the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts (partially damaged): Author: Jozef Brandt, Title: Fragment of the painting "Fair in Balta" Type of work: ol. on canvas and stamp: Malerleinwand Fabrik / von A. Schutzman / in Munchen.

Jozef Brandt - a painter triumphant in Munich's artistic circles, founder of an art studio in whose circle other brush masters such as Maksymilian Gierymski, Jozef Chelmonski and Wladyslaw Czachórski revolved - divided his life into two parts. The painter stayed mainly in Munich, but spent the summer months at his wife's estate in Oronsko, from where he traveled to Podolia, among other places.
Visiting the borderlands in 1874, Jozef Brandt found an exquisite motif depicted in his paintings - the fair - and also gave vent to his collecting interests. Indeed, the painter's Munich studio was full of various utensils, including all kinds of weapons, saddles and eastern textiles, as documented by Wladyslaw Szerner - the painter, but also the "custodian" of his collection - in an 1876 graphic published in the Illustrated Weekly. The subject of borderland traders, also taken up earlier by Juliusz Kossak - a friend of Jozef Brandt - became a motif for monumental, dynamic compositions. Several canvases with the theme of a biannual grand market are known. The first of these (I.116), is dated 1880. As early as 1876, one can find an unfinished work titled "Horse Fair in Balta" mentioned in Jozef Ignacy Kraszewski's account of his visits to Brandt's studio. Researchers of Jozef Brandt's work also point out the artist's hidden self-portraits in paintings with this theme, indicating figures bargaining with the seller. Probably at this time there were also numerous sketches created, quick drawing notes capturing particular details of interest to the artist. Józef Brandt's collection also included a photograph from 1871 documenting a Podolia fair (DI 115429 MNW). Small oil sketches may also have been created, as indicated by senior curator Zofia Katarzyna Posiadała in her opinion to the presented painting.
Jozef Brand emphasized that he was a Polish painter, not only thanks to the addition next to his signature sounding "from Warsaw," but also by regularly sending his works to exhibitions of the Warsaw Society of Fine Arts. According to the opinion of Z. K. Posiadała, there is a paper sticker on the back of this intimate painting, which proves that the canvas was presented at a group exhibition of Józef Brandt's Works organized in 1926 in Warsaw, as a tribute to the artist. In the list of works presented at that time, under item 78, there is a painting entitled: Fragment of a painting
"Jarmark w Balcie" identified with the offered canvas.

(Note compiled from: "Joseph Brandt 1841-1915", ed. schol. Ewa Micke-Broniarek, [Catalogue of a monographic exhibition], vol. 1-3, National Museum in Warsaw, Warsaw 2018: t. 1, p. 196; vol. 2, p. 356; vol. 3, p. 300, il.

Exhibited and included in the catalog: "Collective Exhibition of Works by Jozef Brandt, TZSP, 1926, [guide no. 14], cat. item 78 - here as: Fragment from the painting "Fair in Balta".

Attached to the painting is a copy of the opinion of Zofia Katarzyna Posiadała, senior curator.