Julian FAŁAT, View of the Castle in Czorsztyn and Niedzica

Watercolor, paper, 47 x 87 cm, signed: l.d.: J. Fałat Czorsztyn and Niedzica, ca. 1913. Julian Fałat's painting depicts a historical view of the castle in Czorsztyn and Niedzica. It shows the now-defunct village of Maniowy, which was flooded during the construction of Lake Czorsztyńskie in 1997.

He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow from 1869 to 1871, and then from 1875 to 1880 at the Munich Academy under A. Strahuber and J.L. Raab. He traveled extensively. In 1886, at the invitation of Kaiser Wilhelm II, he went to Berlin, and in 1893 became a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts. From 1895 he was director of the School of Fine Arts in Cracow, which he transformed into a modern Academy - he was its rector from 1905-1909. In 1910 he settled permanently in Bystra in Silesia. He painted landscapes, often winter landscapes, genre scenes, views of architecture and portraits. His favorite technique, which he brought to mastery, was watercolor.