INTRODUCTION

PAINTING
IN POLAND

I N   G A L L E R Y

Scene before a Duel

Old Man and Young Maiden

A Girl

St. Mary's Church
at Night

Four-in-Hand

Stanisław Wyspiański /1869-1907/ - “A GIRL”,

Pastel, 1895, 13” x 10” (32.5 x 24cm)

Wyspiański is better known and appreciated for his monumental wall decorations and glass windows than for his portraits, which are unusually sensitive to the nuances of the human psyche. He is particularly noteworthy as a painter of children. Using pastel, Wyspiański was able to record, quickly yet perceptively, the various emotional states of his young models, usually his own children, giving an incomparable portrayal at the turn of the twentieth century of the young generation which would live to see independent Poland.

This sketch-like portrait of a young unknown girl, drawn with a clear art nouveau line, not only portrays a child, but most of all it reveals a state of intense experiencing of the world of puberty, so difficult to comprehend by adults. It is the fleeting moment in which the young model seems to be leaving the bliss of childhood and looking with the eyes of a mature woman at the fate which awaits her.

The painting is a replica or a variant of a painting now in the National Museum of Poznań, in the Raczyński collection (#MNP-FR-352), with some differences in the features of the model and the color of her dress.