Wojciech Weiss, CYNIE W SZKLANYM WAZONIE, ca. 1905

61,0 x 45,0cm - oil, canvas signed right in the middle: WW.

On the back stamp: 205.

On the lower strip of the loom on the right a sticker (print, pen): NATIONAL MUSEUM IN POZNANIU | Year 1977 | 94; next to it a sticker of an auction house.



Provenance: The painting - at least until 1977 - was owned by Karol Zolich, a well-known Cracow collector, connoisseur and art lover. Later, at a time unknown to us, it found its way into other equally distinguished private collections.



The painting exhibited and reproduced:

- Exhibition of the Society of Polish Artists "Art" at Könyves Kálmán Salon, Budapest 1910, cat. no. 131 ["Art" Lengyel Művészeti Egyesület kiállítása a Könyves Kálmán Szalonjában];

- Wojciech Weiss (1875-1950). Monographic Exhibition, National Museum in Poznań, VI - IX 1977, p. 109, cat. no. 109, il. p. 230, no. 102.



Tintypes is one of the first works created after the breakthrough that took place in Weiss' art in 1905. This is when the so-called "white period" begins, which lasts until 1912. During this time, the artist definitely lightens his palette and abandons soft modeling, his way of laying down paint more resembles drawing. As Agnieszka Ławniczakowa writes: there is now a gradual muting of the pessimistic tones, so pronounced in his Young Poland phase. In his mature years, a serene affirmation of reality and an Arcadian vision of the world will dominate his art, and the exposure of any philosophical "extra-painterly" content will be significantly reduced. (Wojciech Weiss (1875-1950). Exhibition..., op. cit. p. 41)



Both the artist himself and, later, the curators of his large monographic exhibition recognized Tin as a significant painting in Wojciech Weiss's oeuvre. In 1910, the author showed the work at an exhibition of "Art" held at Könyves Kálmán Salon, a well-known Budapest gallery that played an important role in Hungarian artistic life. It hosted temporary exhibitions and auctions of works by Hungarian and foreign artists, including Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, Walter Leistikow and Max Slevogt. In 1977, as a work belonging to the collection of the famous Cracow collector Karol Zolich, the Tintypes were exhibited at a major monographic exhibition of the artist held at the National Museum in Poznan.

Wojciech Weiss (Leorda, Bukovina, Romania 1875 - Krakow 1950) - painter and graphic artist; studied at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow from 1890 to 1899, initially with Jan Matejko, Władysław Łuszczkiewicz, Florian Cynk, Józef Unierzyski, and later also with Leon Wyczółkowski and Julian Fałat. He completed his studies with a gold medal; later he continued his education in Paris and Italy. Since 1897 he was a member of the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka", in 1906 he became a member of the Vienna "Secession". From 1907 he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow - from 1910 as an associate professor; from 1913 as a full professor. He also served as the university's rector twice - in 1918/19 and 1933-1936. He was one of the most outstanding Polish painters of the Young Poland period and the interwar period. In his early period he painted symbolic figural scenes, often with fantastic themes, and later also portraits, nudes and landscapes. He also worked in printmaking and sculpture.