Władysław Podkowiński (; 4 February 1866 – 5 January 1895) was a Polish master painter and illustrator associated with the Young Poland movement during the Partition period.

Career

Podkowiński was born in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

and began his artistic training at

Wojciech Gerson Wojciech Gerson (; 1 July 1831 – 25 February 1901) was a Polish painter, educator, architect and art critic who was one of the foremost representatives of the Polish school of Realism during the foreign Partitions of Poland. He served as long ...

's drawing school, he then transferred to the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts where he studied between 1880 and 1884. After graduating, Podkowinski began to contribute to many of the leading art journals in Warsaw at the time. In 1885, he travelled, along with Józef Pankiewicz, to the Imperial Academy of Arts where he studied from 1885 to 1886. Returning from St. Petersburg in 1886, Podkowiński obtained a position of an illustrator for the ''Tygodnik Ilustrowany'' magazine where he became one its most renowned artists. His first

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

and

oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

s were produced during this time, but Podkowiński still considered them personal, not a public endeavor. Those early paintings were mainly influenced by Aleksander Gierymski. He adopted painting as a profession after a trip to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1889, where he was profoundly influenced by French

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

painters including

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

. Podkowiński was later credited for bringing the Impressionist movement to Poland, but toward the end of his life, his failing health inclined him toward

Symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

. He died in Warsaw at the very early age of 28 due to

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. His best known painting, '' Frenzy of Exultations'' (''Szał uniesień''), exhibited first in Zachęta, is surrounded by the turn-of-the-century atmosphere of scandal and public outcry. In 1894, it was featured in a Warsaw art exhibition and violently criticized. The exhibition lasted only 36 days because Podkowinski brought a knife on the 37th day, and slashed his work on display. The painting was restored after his death and is prominently exhibited at the Sukiennice Museum in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

Selected paintings

File:Podkowiński Study of a blonde.jpg, ''Study of a Blonde'',

National Museum in Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw (, MNW) is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art ( Egyptian, Greek, Roman), counting about 11,000 pieces, an ...

File:Władysław Podkowiński, Ulica Nowy Świat w Warszawie w dzień letni.jpg, '' Nowy Świat''
''on a Summer Day'',

File:Podkowiński - Mokra Wieś 1892.jpg, ''Village by the Water'', National Museum in Poznań File:Władysław Podkowiński - Children in the garden - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Children in the garden'',

File:Podkowinski - La Folie.jpg, '' Frenzy of Exultations'',

National Museum in Kraków The National Museum in Kraków (), popularly abbreviated as MNK, is the largest museum in Poland, and the main branch of Poland's National Museum, which has several independent branches with permanent collections around the country. Established in ...

File:Władysław Podkowiński - Spotkanie.jpg, ''The Encounter'', National Museum in Wrocław

References

External links

Władysław Podkowiński
at Culture.pl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Podkowinski, Wladyslaw 1866 births 1895 deaths Painters from Warsaw Polish Impressionist painters Polish illustrators Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw alumni 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis 19th-century Polish painters 19th-century Polish male artists Polish male painters Tuberculosis deaths in the Russian Empire People from Congress Poland Tuberculosis deaths in Poland

Career

Selected paintings

See also

References

External links