Jozef Pankiewicz (1866 Lublin - 1940 Marseille), Provençal landscape with olive grove

oil, board, 27 × 35 cm
signed l. d.: "Pankiewicz"

On the back most likely author's inscription in pencil: "Pankiewicz/Cassis 1928", and the numeral "5".

Provenance:
- private collection, Poland

"Undeniably, Pankiewicz owes much to his enthusiasm for the genius of France. Above all, however, he owes that rare synthesis of an intelligence alert and eager for bold deeds with a sense of moderation
and harmony that characterizes his work. It is sometimes said about the French influence in Pankiewicz's work. How much validity is there in this?... He does not imitate individual artists, but like a bee meticulously gathers the honey of the artistic achievements of his era. And like a bee he processes it, fuses it
with the Polish substance of his own talent into a separate and interesting whole. Through the wanderings and various phases of his prolific life, marked by works of high value, our famous compatriot has reached the level of creative flowering, where plastic form, color, drawing compose a beautiful symphony of painting."

E. Woroniecki, Projects of Pankiewicz's wall decorations for the chapel at the Wawel Castle.
Exhibited in Paris, to be taken to Cracow soon, "Rainbow" 1931, z. 29, p. [4].



"The vision of nature is a source of inexhaustible forms and colors for the painter's eye, as well as for his imagination, which penetrates into the life of beings and objects through the emotion born of seeing."

J. Czapski, "Józef Pankiewicz. Life and Work. Statements on Art," Warsaw 1936, p. 138.




The 1920s in Pankiewicz's work are primarily beautiful landscapes immortalizing the landscape characteristic of the Provence region. The artist and his wife spent their summer vacations in the south of France during the summer months, although it was also sometimes the destination of spring trips. In the literature, the summer of 1909 spent with the artist's friend Pierre Bonnard and his wife in a jointly rented house in Saint-Tropez is often cited as the moment that marks the beginning of Pankiewicz's fascination with the region and a kind of time caesura for the painter's artistic output. In fact, this locale was an episode in the Pankiewicz family's vacation travels already a year earlier ("Józef Pankiewicz. Life and Work. To the Artist on the 140th Anniversary of his Birth", Warsaw 2006, p. LII [52]). Pankiewicz also visited Saint Tropez in 1919 and in the spring of 1921-1922, but the increased popularity of this destination among tourists forced the artist to choose more peaceful destinations that would be conducive to the creative process (Ibid., p. XVIII [18]. These were successively the picturesque towns
in Sanary (1924,1926), La Ciotat (1927) and Cassis (1928), with the 1930s seeming to be the one
La Ciotat seems to have been the "haven" to which the artist liked to return. This is where the painter's last completed landscapes from 1938 come from (Ibid, p. LXII [62]).
Provence proved to be a source of inexhaustible inspiration for Pankiewicz. For the most part, the landscapes are undisturbed by staffage, reflecting the beauty of nature that the artist experienced in direct contact with the local countryside. The canvases are filled with such characteristic olive groves, whose silvery-green hue of the treetops contrasts with the rusty-red color of the earth. Elsewhere
in the distance, one can see the characteristic relief of the land ascending toward the sky or descending toward the waters of the bay. These landscapes are also a record of the formal transformations in the artist's oeuvre, initially brimming with color under the influence of Bonnard and Cezanne, later with a more sedate, harmonious color palette. The works of Jozef Pankiewicz are for the viewer like a visual journey through this Mediterranean Arcadia, which enticed the painter with its charm for almost the entire period of his artistic path.