Piotr Stachiewicz, LAST WAY, 1885

34,0 x 66,5cm - oil, canvas signed l.d.: P. Stachiewicz | 885

On the upper strip of the stretcher: P. Stachiewicz [...].

Painting after conservation.



Provenance: the painting comes from the collection of the artist's niece Jadwiga Boniecka (1902-1982). After her death it passed into the hands of her heirs.



Compare:

- Wojciech Gerson, From the field of fine arts. III. Painting. Dalszy ciąg, "Tygodnik Ilustrowany" 1885, no. 110, p. 86.



Among the woodiest is Stachiewicz's tiny painting, A Funeral Amidst a Winter Blizzard, whose only companions are two country boys pulling a poor man's coffin on a toboggan. The thought is new and very dramatic; if it had been worked a little more extensively, it could have made an even more profound impression.

Wojciech Gerson



Piotr Stachiewicz, one of Jan Matejko's most famous students, a student of Prof. Otto Seitz in Munich, is best known among collectors as the author of the series Queen of Heaven. Legends of the Virgin Mary (1893) and pastel "heads." Few of his earlier works have survived to this day. Hence the painting, which was created when the artist finished his studies in Munich and returned to Krakow, should be considered unique. Prior to the creation of the offered canvas, the artist painted this scene in a smaller format, as we read in the pages of "Tygodnik Ilustrowany". Wojciech Gerson's favorable review probably encouraged the young artist to repeat the composition, as suggested by the eminent artist, on a larger canvas. As predicted by the famous painter and educator, the work has great expressive power. Here, wading through a frosty blizzard, with great difficulty a man pulls a sled with a peasant coffin behind him. In one hand he holds a cross, while the other leads a weeping little boy. The poor procession is closed by the huddled figure of a dog, the only companion of the tiny orphan. The ice-strewn wilderness enhances the mood of emptiness and deafening despair. Glowing on the horizon with a cold, orange-red glow, the glow of the setting sun, like an ominous omen, announces the uneasy fate of the orphaned child. The work of a young artist standing at the threshold of his artistic career testifies to the excellent technique of a graduate of the famous Munich academy. Epicism and symbolism, as well as a powerful load of expression, place it among the more important compositions in the oeuvre of Piotr Stachiewicz.

Piotr Stachiewicz (Nowosiółki Gościnne 1858 - Krakow 1938) - painter and illustrator. He graduated from the Lviv Polytechnic. From 1877 to 1883 he studied painting at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow, including under J. Matejko, and from 1883 to 1885 at the Munich Academy under O. Seitz. He traveled to Italy and the Holy Land. He painted genre scenes, portraits - including the popular "heads" of girls, and religious paintings, the most famous of which is the series "Legend of the Virgin Mary" from 1892 - 1893. He created a series of paintings based on the novels of H. Sienkiewicz and the poetry of A. Mickiewicz. He was involved in book illustration, illustrating, among others, "Quo vadis?" by Sienkiewicz and "Fairy Tales" by J.I. Kraszewski.