Jan Styka (1858 Lviv - 1925 Rome), Sketch for the painting "Vytautas' Oath"

pencil, gouache, paper, 38.5 × 29 cm in light passe-partout

Provenance:
Collection of the family of Paul Schlockoff.
Private collection, Poland

"Vytautas swears vengeance to the Teutonic Knights against the background of burning Kaunas" - this monumental work (350 × 640 cm) was painted by Jan Styka in 1901, during his stay in Paris. The painting was created over a year. This multifaceted, richly detailed composition is a glorification of the figure of Grand Duke Vytautas Kiejstutowicz, Grand Duke of Lithuania. Surrounding him, Styka immortalized several leading representatives of the Gediminovich dynasty, which ruled Lithuania since the late 13th century and from which the Jagiellonians descended. Among them is the figure of Wladyslaw the cousin brother of Vytautas, king of Poland. The scene depicted by Styka does not illustrate an actual historical scene. Here is Vytautas at the time of the capture of the castle in Kaunas by the Teutonic Knights in 1362 was only a few years old, and Jagiello had not yet been born. The painting is in the collection of the Vytautas the Great Military Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania.
The drawing comes from a legacy of about 100 drawings preserved in the collection of Paul Schlockoff - Adam Styka's closest friend (son of Jan Styka). After emigrating to the United States in the late 1940s, Adam Styka entrusted Paul with the management of his Parisian affairs, the sale of various paintings and also the sale of his apartment at Place Pigalle 5. He also told him about his daily life and members of his family. The fruits of this friendship are the surviving drawings and paintings of both Jan Styka and his sons, as well as a rich correspondence between both Paul Schlockoff and Adam, as well as Wanda and Doris Styka (Tadé's wife). From some sixty letters we learn many details. Adam Styka wrote to Paul about his stay in Arizona in 1948, which changed his work as a painter. As he wrote in the letters: "for 2 months I was with my wife in Arizona, where I painted a lot, I am delighted with the light there, the landscape and especially the cowboys with horses. So that temporarily away from Africa, you could say that I switched to American subjects." Other letters mention the death of his mother (Jan Styka's wife), the potential sale of a painting by Tadé Styka to the Louvre, or the construction of the Crucifixion Hall in California, which is to house a monumental painting by Jan Styka.