Franciszek Kostrzewski(1826-1911),Love letter,1893

format:29x21cm in light passe-partout,woodcut,paper,signed and dated p.d.F.Kostrzewski1870 and xylograph l.d. A.Zajkowski
from the portfolio "Album of Fr. Kostrzewski" published by S. Lewental, 1893.

Franciszek Kostrzewski - realist painter, creator of genre scenes, illustrator, satirical cartoonist, caricaturist. He was the son of the steward of one of the noble palaces in Warsaw.
After the November Uprising, the family moved to a country estate in Sandomierskie Province while Franciszek returned to Warsaw to continue his education. However, after completing five grades of gymnasium, he lost interest in science; from an early age he was passionate above all about drawing and the study of nature. His plans for art were opposed by his father, but in 1844,18-year-old Kostrzewski enrolled in the new School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He studied under Jan Feliks Piwarski, Chrystian Breslauer and Alexander Kokular, among others. During his studies he traveled around the country painting landscapes and genre scenes documenting the life of small towns of the time.
In 1856, he spent several months in Paris. After returning to Poland in 1856, he began his illustration activities. His illustrations appeared in Warsaw magazines and he also illustrated books.
Franciszek Kostrzewski is the author of one of the oldest Polish cartoons. It was "Historya Jedynaczka w 32 obrazkach", the first episode of which appeared in the third issue of "Tygodnik Ilustrowany" dated 3.X.1859. Kostrzewski is considered a forerunner of Polish comics.

Andrzej Zajkowski (born 1851 in Warsaw, died November 28, 1914 there) - an outstanding Warsaw wood engraver, one of the leading representatives of Polish xylography, an excellent reproducer of drawings by Michal Andriolli.

Active in 1865-1889, he gained early recognition in artistic circles. His works began to appear in "Kłosy" when he was less than 15 years old, at the age of 20 he engraved drawings by Andriolli, with whom he collaborated for the longest time (one of Zajkowski's last works, entitled Concert over Concerts, was according to Andriolli). In 1881 he was entrusted with making woodcuts according to Andriolli's drawings for Adam Mickiewicz's Pan Tadeusz (published in Lviv in 1882). In addition to Andriolli, Zajkowski engraved the works of other outstanding painters and illustrators (including Jozef Chelmonskir, Jozef Buchbinder, Wojciech Gerson, Julian Falat, Apoloniusz Kedzierski, Juliusz Kossak, Franciszek Kostrzewski, Jan Matejko, Jozef Pankiewicz, Henryk Pillati, Wladyslaw Szerner, Leon Wyczolkowski and many others). In 1876, he established a short-lived wood engraving shop with Jan Styfi. He received numerous awards for his artistic achievements, including at the Ornamentation Exhibition in Warsaw in 1886-1888 and the Printing Art Exhibition in St. Petersburg in 1895.