Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, PORTRET KOBIETY, 29 XI 1925

58.7 x 48.7 cm - pastel, paper pastel, brown paper, 58.7 x 48.7 cm

Signed p.d.: NP4.5 | Ign Witkiewicz 1925 | T.B [in circle]; l.d.: 29/XI



The painting is accompanied by an expert's report by Dr. Anna Żakiewicz dated May 2023.



This portrait of a woman, taken on November 29, 1925, was created only a few months after the Portrait Company was constituted, and was classified as Type B, which was defined in the Regulations as "characteristic, but without the shadow of caricature [...] with some undercutting of characteristic features, which does not exclude 'prettiness' in female portraits. Relationship to the model objective." These images presented faithful likenesses of the models, without deformation, the head was generally drawn very carefully, the likeness was brilliantly captured, the rest of the bust was captured more sketchily, but with the most important details highlighted and the actual color of the clothing preserved. Type B was generally signed "Ign Witkiewicz" - with the abbreviation of the second name and the full name as the official work of the Portrait Company, the pseudonym "Witkacy" was used by the artist when portraying close acquaintances and friends.

The portrait of the woman perfectly fulfills the assumptions of type B. The model's face is carefully worked out, as if sculpted, which probably refers to the classicizing art of the mid-1920s. Her hair is styled according to the fashion of the time with a middle parting and bangs, cut below her ears and arranged in waves. The woman is serious, wearing a black dress and a dark green coat or jacket with wide lapels. The modeling of the outfit also seems to imitate the sculpture. The colors of the background partly relate to the colors of the clothing: black twisted streaks form a kind of decorative halo around the woman's head, and their bright filling enlivens the subdued whole.

The signature on the portrait, in addition to the date and type of the image, is supplemented by a note about not smoking cigarettes for 4 and 5 days (NP4,5), which allows us to conclude that work on this work lasted two days.

The portrait was certainly created in Warsaw, where the artist's wife lived after their separation, which took place in early 1925. Witkacy visited her several times a year, remaining in a friendly relationship with her and contributing 200 zlotys a month for her upkeep. He stayed in her apartment at 23 Bracka Street, an address he gave to his clients as the place to go to order a portrait.

The portrait of the woman was made during an important period in Witkacy's life, which was undoubtedly the first year of the Portrait Company's official operation, and especially when he presented his work in one of the most important Polish showrooms, which, by the way, remains Warsaw's Zachęta. This may have been crucial in gaining the recognition of the capital's discerning socialite.

The work is thus an important document of Witkacy's life and work, and its careful execution testifies not only to the artist's high skills, but also to how seriously the artist treated his clients, despite his worries and assumption of a sometimes clownish pose.

This portrait has another interesting aspect. Although Witkacy was a great artistic individuality escaping traditional classifications, it is impossible not to notice the delicate stylistic affinity of the image in question with the figures appearing in the paintings of such artists as Ludomir Slendzinski, Eugeniusz Zak or even Tamara Lempicka. This classicizing style, also referred to as art déco, was very popular at the time, not only in Poland, but also throughout Europe. So it is hardly surprising that Witkacy to some extent adapted to the current fashion, without losing anything of his own originality and mastery.

From the expert opinion of Dr. Anna Żakiewicz

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Warsaw 1885 - Jeziory in Volhynia 1939) was educated at home under his father, Stanisław Witkiewicz. In 1903 he passed his high school diploma in Lviv. In 1904 he began traveling, including to Vienna, Italy, Munich, Paris and London. From 1904 to 1910 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow with Prof. Jozef Mehoffer, interrupted by periods of study with Władysław Ślewiński. In 1914 he left with Bronislaw Malinowski's expedition to Australia, and from there went directly to St. Petersburg, where he enlisted in the Russian army after the outbreak of WWI. In Russia, he witnessed the Bolshevik Revolution.

After returning to the country in 1918, he became a member of the "Formists" group, with which he exhibited from 1918 to 1922. In the painting of this period, he came closest to putting into practice his own theory of Pure Form, formulated during the war (it also applied to drama). Along with Leon Chwistek, he was the main theoretician of the grouping. After 1924, he operated as a one-man "S. I. Witkiewicz Portrait Company'' making portraits on commission. At the same time, he continued his literary (dramas, novels) and philosophical work, and above all he practiced the "art of living" that united all forms of his activity, appreciated only at the end of the 20th century. He committed suicide at the beginning of World War II, the day after the Soviet aggression against Poland.