Jan Styka (1858 Lviv - 1925 Rome), Sleeping Dogs

pencil, paper, 19 × 19 cm
light passe-partout
on the reverse a sketch
Provenance:
Collection of the family of Paul Schlockoff.
Private collection, Poland

The drawings come 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, selling various paintings and also selling 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
as well as Wanda and Doris Styka (Tadé's wife). From some sixty letters, we learn a
many details. Adam Styka wrote to Paul about a stay in Arizona in 1948, which changed
his work as a painter. As he wrote in the letters: "for 2 months I was in Arizona with my wife,
where I painted a lot, delighted with the light there, the landscape and especially the
cowboys with horses. So that temporarily away from Africa, you could say that I
I switched to American subjects." Other letters mention the death of his mother (wife of Jan
Styka), the potential sale of a Tadé Styka painting to the Louvre, or the construction of the Crucifixion Room
in California, which is to house a monumental painting by Jan Styka.