Leon Wyczółkowski, FISHBAK (HUCUł PRZECHODZĄCY BY RZEKĘ), 1910

68.8 x 53.8cm - lithograph, paper lithograph, lithographic paper
Signed p.d.: L. Wyczół

In 1910 Wyczółkowski made a trip to the Hutsul region. From there he brought back a series of pastel landscapes and numerous sketches and studies. Enchanted by the landscape there, he recalled years later: Yaremcze and Vorokhta. I was enchanted. These villages against the background of the forest. ... 60 things from Yaremche, Yablonka, Vorokhta. I sat there spring and summer. (Leon Wyczółkowski, Letters and memoirs, compiled by. M. Twarowska, Wroclaw 1960, pp. 106-107). The composition presented here was created as part of a series of 29 autolithographs that were part of the 1910 Hutsul Portfolio. Most of them depicted fishermen from the Prut and Cheremosh rivers; Hutsuls sitting by the river, casting nets, wading in the water. On others the artist depicted Orthodox churches, bell towers, homesteads - motifs from Jaremcz, Vorokhta, Suczawa, Zabi and other towns in the region.

Leon Wyczółkowski (Huta Miastkowska near Siedlce 1852 - Warsaw 1936) - painter, graphic artist and educator, was one of the most outstanding Polish artists creating at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He began his artistic studies at the Warsaw Drawing Class under Wojciech Gerson and Aleksander Kaminski (1869-1873), then continued them at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts under Aleksander Wagner (1875-1877), in Cracow under Jan Matejko (1877/78) and during two trips to Paris (1878 and 1889). After his studies, he settled in Lviv and later moved to Warsaw. He spent the years 1883-1893 traveling in Ukraine and Podolia. In 1895 he moved to Cracow appointed as a lecturer at the School of Fine Arts there. In the following years he traveled extensively - to Italy, France, Spain, Holland, England. He was one of the founding members of the Society of Polish Artists "Art". He exhibited a lot both at home and abroad. He spent the years 1929-1936 in Poznań and Gościeradz, commuting to Warsaw, where (from 1934) he held the chair of graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts. He painted landscapes, portraits, genre scenes, still lifes and flowers. He readily used pastel and watercolor techniques, was an accomplished printmaker, and was also involved in sculpture.