Dimensions: 40.5 x 46 cm
Signed, dated and inscribed l.d.: 'F. Ruszczyc B.00.'
on the reverse difficult to read description and a fragmentarily preserved paper exhibition sticker of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in the Kingdom of Poland in Warsaw, on the frame paper stickers: of a framing workshop and an auction one
Origins
from the historical collection of Jan Goldstand (1837-1904)
Agra-Art auction house, March 2003
private collection, Poland
Exhibited
Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in the Kingdom of Poland, Warsaw, 1903
Literature
Janina Wiercińska, Catalogue of works exhibited at the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in the years 1860-1914, Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków-Gdańsk 1969, p. 319 (mentioned as "Study")
Report of the Committee of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in the Kingdom of Poland for 1903, Warsaw 1904, p. 47 (probably as one of "19 different landscapes") and p. 63 (as "Studyum")
Biography
In 1890 he graduated with a gold medal from the classical gymnasium in Minsk-Litovsk and began studying law in St. Petersburg. In 1892 he moved to the Academy of Fine Arts there, where from 1897 he studied under I. Shishkin and A. Kuindzhi. During his period of study, he made several trips, including to Crimea (1894 and 1895) and to Berlin and Sweden via Königsberg, Szczecin and Rügen (1896). In 1897 he settled in Bohdanov, from where he traveled extensively in Europe the following year (Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy). In 1903 he took an active part in organizing the Warsaw School of Fine Arts, of which he was a professor from 1904 to 07. In the academic year 1907/08 he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. In 1908 he returned to Vilnius: he lived in Bohdanov and Vilnius. In 1918, he organized the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Stefan Batory University; he served as a professor of this faculty from 1919-32. Since 1900, he was actively involved in the Society of Polish Artists "Art" (in 1907 he was president, and organized several exhibitions of the Society, including in Vilnius 1903 and Vienna 1908, together with J. Mehoffer). Ferdynand Ruszczyc was one of the most outstanding Polish painters of the Young Poland period. He painted allegorical scenes, urban views and landscapes.
