Raphael Malczewski, Rocky Mountains

45.0 x 33.2cm - watercolor, pencil, paper signed l.d.: R Malczewski

On the reverse, number (in black marker): 331; also, along the right edge, framing notes dated 1/IX (in pencil).



Provenance: collection of the artist's family.



Rafał Malczewski (Kraków 1892 - Montreal 1965) studied agronomy, philosophy and architecture in Vienna; he also attended the Academy of Fine Arts there, but owed his artistic education primarily to his father, Jacek Malczewski. From 1917 to 1939 he lived permanently in Zakopane; he was a passionate mountaineer. In 1930 he left for a six-month stay in France. In December 1939 he broke through Slovakia and Hungary to France, from where he then left for Brazil and later the United States. In 1942 he arrived in Montreal, where he remained permanently. Beginning in 1919 he exhibited extensively; from 1934 also as a member of the "Rhythm" grouping. He painted mainly landscapes - from the Tatra Mountains, Podhale, views from small towns and factory Silesia, later also from Brazil and Canada. In his paintings - consciously primitive, often maintained in a poetic and fairy-tale mood - he is close to the art of naive realism. Malczewski was also a literary man, author of articles on art, columns, essays and memoirs of the Tatra and Zakopane Mountains, including "Narcotic of the Mountains," "The Mountains Call" and "Navel of the World," a book already written in Canada.