Stanisław Wyspiański (1869 Kraków - 1907 there), Portrait of a boy, 1902.

pastel, paper (INGRES type with watermark), 42 × 52 cm
Signed with bound monogram and dated l. d.: "SW 1902"

Attached to the work is an expert opinion by Ms. Marta Romanowska - an outstanding expert on the work of Stanisław Wyspiański, author of many publications on him

Provenance:
- Krakow, collection of Dr. Kolberg - until 1936
- Kraków, collection of provincial court judge Wieslaw Turowski
- Kraków, collection of Wieslaw Turowski's heirs
- Cracow, private collection

"For the artist, children were a medium through which he entered the realm of the subconscious, of dreams, of another reality."
M. Tomczyk-Maryon, "Wyspiański," Warsaw, 2009, p. 216.

"What a pleasure to walk around the city and draw - a mass of kids always converge - stare - make their remarks - and kisses pretty - healthy - with eyes curious clever."
S. Wyspiański [in:] "Listy Stanisława Wyspiańskiego do Lucjana Rydla", part 1-2. Kraków 1979, p. 61.


"(...) I live in a distant suburb on the right bank of the Oder in a small house, and I am so quiet here, next to me lives some German family, where a mass of children who naturally visit me every day, so that I always have a mass of guests at my place if I am at home. They look through all my books and drawings and have great fun with it. I have become so used to it here that I will be sorry to leave. You won't believe what pleasure I have with these children being able to draw them all the time."
From a letter to Tadeusz Stryjeński, Wrocław 19.09.1890, [in:] W. Okoń, "Stanisław Wyspiański", Wrocław 2001, p. 61.


Among the numerous portraits painted and drawn by Stanisław Wyspiański, images of children are among the most recognizable subjects in his artwork. Children's portraits, paintings in which the little models are treated with special tenderness and understanding of the world of their issues and sensibilities stand out in a special way in his oeuvre. They simply show the artist's adoration for children. Antoni Waśkowski, a relative of the artist, emphasized in his memoirs that Wyspiański "loved in children not only a model, he loved their every thought, every smile and sorrow, screaming enthusiasm and fearful cry, delight and terror [...] all this he apparently always observed and noted in his memory [...] and this beloved and understood soul of a child later always painted with pleasure." (A. Waśkowski, "Z moich wspomnień o Stanisławie Wyspiańskim", Miejsce Piastowe, 1934) Initially Wyspiański created snapshot portraits, of children he met by chance while wandering around Europe, small onlookers following the sketcher. But the portraits of the artist's own children, the children of his friends or casual acquaintances, are particularly appreciated, the esteem of successive generations familiar with reproductions of Wyspiański's work. Portraits of anonymous models also often appear in the oeuvre.
All these portraits, like the rest of the "Portrait of a Boy" presented at the auction, are painted with the same patient and vigilant attention to the posing child have ensured the artist's immortality. Captured at different times of the day, thoughtful, sleepy, bored, sitting at the table or wrapped in a blanket in disarray, captured in profile or en face, they still enchant with their naturalness and directness of capture. They carry an unusual atmosphere of peace and security, evoking in the viewer a memory of happy childhood years. In which the carefree existence is not sometimes disturbed by any storms. That is why their portraits made by Wyspianski today evoke not only admiration, but also warm emotions. The year 1902 - the year of the presented drawing - is one of the best in Wyspianski's work. In addition to working on the drama "Liberation", publishing in the magazines "Krytyka" and "Czas", he was appointed an associate professor at the Department of Decorative and Ecclesiastical Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, worked on the stained glass Kazimierz Wielki for Wawel Cathedral, and finally, it was from this year that the Portraits of the Artist's Wife and Helena, several compositions of Motherhood and Maria Raczynska come from, among Wyspiański's most outstanding painting achievements.