Franciszek Żmurko (1859 Lviv - 1910 Warsaw), Portrait of a Lady in a Hat

oil, cardboard, 32.5 × 17.5 cm in light passe-partout
Signed p. d.: "Fran. Żmurko"

"Throughout Żmurko's oeuvre weaves like an unbroken thread of gold, the cult of woman and the feminine type in its various variations. This type is already bacchically sensual, already laced with sentiment and idealistic factor. This study of the female nude, which was already considered by the greatest masters of universal painting such as Rubens, Titian, Veronese and Tiepolo as the quintessence of painting, the most grateful subject and the highest elevation of the creative power of painting, had different phases in different periods of his life and painting activity. Żmurka's artistry was of those in which one can find very clearly, the immortal elements of the great Renaissance. It was a creative spirit, driven by the impetuous force of inner inspiration to create feverishly (...). In the great plethora of Polish masters of brushwork of the post-Matejko era, he was the only one who, through the force of his individualism, managed to make his paintings sell on the world market. (...)
"He possessed a unique ability to look at what is beautiful, what gilds the gray of life and makes our nerves tremble, that he loved the masterpiece of nature - a woman, pulsating with full blood, this secured for him a position not only in Polish, but all-world art, and this was the source of his fame and exceptional success." W. Prokesch, Franciszek Żmurko, Krakow 1911, pp. 4-6