Witold Pruszkowski(1846-1896),Country boy,1884

woodcut, paper; 30 x 21 cm (clear passe-partout);
signed and dated on plate p. d.: Witold Pruszkowski 1884.
Witold Pruszkowski-Polish painter and illustrator. Witold Pruszkowski was born in Bershad, spent his childhood in Odessa and Kiev. He studied painting and drawing (in Paris with Tadeusz Gorecki, son-in-law of Adam Mickiewicz, 1868-1872 at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, 1872-1875 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow (with Jan Matejko). In 1882 he settled in Mników near Cracow. Together with his brother, he traveled in Algiers, Tunisia and Italy. He regularly exhibited his works in Cracow, Warsaw and Lvov. In 1892 he became chairman of the committee to build a monument to Artur Grottger in Cracow. He painted rural genre scenes, paintings with themes from fairy tales, legends and folk beliefs, combining realistic representation with romantic fantasy and moodiness, as well as poetic visions inspired by the works of Słowacki, Krasiński and Chopin, and subtle, melancholic landscapes. He created insightful and unconventional portraits. In addition to oil technique, he used pastels.