oil/canvas
Dimensions: 82 x 60 cm
signed and dated l.d.: 'HLipinski | 21/7 1866'
on the reverse of the stamp of the Vienna warehouse of painting accessories W. Koller & Co.
The painting is based on a composition by Maksymilian Antoni Piotrowski from 1859 (National Museum in Krakow).
Biography
He was born into an impoverished middle-class family in Nowy Targ. As a boy he moved to Krakow, where his sister lived. He initially studied at the School of Fine Arts there in the 1860s. He then traveled to Munich, where he studied in the private studio of Theodor Dietz and at the Munich Academy under Otto Seitz and Hermann Anschütz. During his studies on the Isar River, he received a bronze medal. He returned to Krakow in 1872. After two years, he re-entered the walls of the Krakow academy and this time came into direct contact with the figure of Jan Matejko. He taught at the Adrian Baraniecki Higher Courses for Women organized at the Technical and Industrial Museum. He also took an active part in preparations for the visit of Emperor Franz Joseph in 1880. Together with other artists, he painted scenes from the monarch's stay in Galicia for an album later given to Archduke Rudolf. He also created the painting "The Austrian Emperor on the Circumnavigation of Cracow 1880," which he presented to Franz Joseph.
He exhibited in all major salons and institutions in the Polish lands, as well as abroad, where he won recognition. He painted mainly large-scale, elaborate genre scenes depicting the life of Krakow at the time. His compositions, maintained in the spirit of realism, are characterized by meticulousness and attention to detail. With a reporter's flair, Lipinski recreated both the historical costume and the architecture against which he set the scenes he depicted. In his later works, even before Pankiewicz and Podkowiński, he smuggled in some issues of French impressionism in the form of luminous blips and characteristic reflections. The painter died in Krakow at the age of only thirty-eight, and despite the fame he achieved during his era, he fell unjustly into oblivion. Among his best-known paintings are "Corpus Christi Procession" (1881, MNK), "The Zwierzyniec Horse" (ca. 1881, MNK), "Market on the Market Square in Krakow" also known as "Ash Wednesday" (ca. 1875-80, MNK) or "Rumford Soup in front of St. Catherine's Church in Krakow" (1883, private collection).
