Antoni Kurzawa, Wawel and Vistula, 1878/2015

76.0 x 41.0 cm - patinated bronze signed: WISŁA-WAWEL 1878 | ANTONI KURZAWA 1842 - 1898 | 5/6

CAST | 2015 | T. ROSS

Kurzawa's work was highly regarded by his contemporaries Stanislaw Witkiewicz, Stanislaw Wyspianski, Leon Wyczolkowski and Xawery Dunikowski, who said of him: "Of my predecessors, only the irrepressible, wasted Kurzawa had his own strong temperament."

The indigenous talent of the artist, who came from a poor country family, the great creative passion through which he broke both artistic and social conventions, and, finally, his ogre-like sensitivity, made Kurzawa go down in the history of art as a symbol of the tragic fate of unappreciated artists on the one hand, and as one of the most individual and creative Polish sculptors of the 19th century on the other.

"Kurzawa sometimes made mistakes in the modeling of anatomical details and drapery; according to Stanislaw Witkiewicz, these were insignificant in view of the originality, power of expression and 'electric spark' of his talent with which he created his works," - wrote Michał Domański in a note on the artist included in the Dictionary of Polish Artists..." (T. IV, p. 392). The author goes on to emphasize that Kurzawa was "endowed with a great sense of composition," while citing as an example, among others, the composition Wawel and Vistula.

This work is among Kurzawa's best-known sculptures. It was created after his return to Krakow from Paris, where in 1876-1877 the artist studied in the studio of Henri Chapu. It was highly regarded by Stanislaw Wyspianski, hence he had a cast of it in his studio. It was probably his inspiration for the figure of Krak in the second act of "Legend" (1897). Plaster models of the composition in question are in the collections of the National Museum in Cracow (cast from 1878) and the District Museum in Sandomierz (bronzed plaster - cast from 1898).

The bronze on offer is the fifth of six casts that were cast in 2015 from the original author's plaster. The sculpture was made by Tomasz Ross (b. 1966), a sculptor and casting artist, a graduate of the Antoni Kenar State High School of Fine Arts in Zakopane (1986) and the Warsaw Academy.