Józef Mehoffer, PORTRET OF A BOY, 1932

63.5 x 48.0 cm - charcoal, ribbed paper charcoal, ribbed paper with filigree MBM (FRANCE)
Signed p.g.: Jozef Mehoffer | 1932.

Pin marks in the corners.



Image exhibited and reproduced:

- Unknown Works from a Private Collection, Rzeszów Regional Museum 5 March - 20 May 2015;

- Artistic Credo. Unknown works from a private collection, exhibition catalog 16 XI 2016 - 26 II 2017, edited by Maria Stopyra, Rzeszów 2016, p. 11.

Józef Mehoffer (Ropczyce 1869-Wadowice 1946) - painter, graphic artist, stage designer and educator; next to Stanisław Wyspiański, he was the most prominent Polish creator of stained glass and polychromy. A student of Jan Matejko and the Paris universities - Ecolé des Beaux Arts and Accadémie Colarossi - he began his creative path in 1889-1891 with work on the polychrome of St. Mary's Church in Cracow (under Matejko's direction). In 1895, he was awarded first prize in an international competition for stained glass windows for the collegiate church in Fribourg, Switzerland (their realization lasted until 1934). In the following years, he received various other commissions for stained glass and polychromes, including for the Wawel and Plock cathedrals, the Armenian cathedral in Lvov, churches in Opava, Onnes in Switzerland, Jutrosin, Wloclawek or Przemyśl (not all completed). He was an outstanding representative of Art Nouveau. He created decoratively treated portraits, including self-portraits and portraits of his wife, as well as paintings with genre overtones, which in 1895-1917 gained the meaning of symbolic compositions. He also painted landscapes combining Art Nouveau decorativeness with the achievements of Impressionism. With masterful mastery of various techniques - oil, tempera, watercolor and gouache - he also worked in printmaking. The last major exhibition of the artist's works, entitled Opus magnum, was held in 2000 at the National Museum in Cracow.