Józef HOLEWIŃSKI (1848-1917), Lady in an Armchair, 1922

Woodcut, paper; 18 x 13 cm (clear passe-partout);
Signed on panel l. d.: "J.HOLEWIŃSKI".
Józef Holewiński (born March 17, 1848 in Warsaw, died January 20, 1917 there)-Warsaw wood engraver, artist-painter, illustrator; one of the outstanding Polish xylographers. He studied painting at Wojciech Gerson's Drawing School in Warsaw, while he learned the art of interpretive woodcuts from Jan Styfi (from 1864). Under his tutelage, he began working in the wood engraving department of "Kłosy" in 1865; after the magazine's collapse in 1890, he moved to "Tygodnik Ilustrowany", where (from 1891) he served as artistic director; he remained in this position until his death in 1917; for a while he ran the illustration department of the weekly "Wanderer"; he also collaborated with foreign magazines ("Moderne Kunst", "Gazette des Beaux Arts"). Holewinski was repeatedly awarded for his woodcuts (1873 a diploma of recognition at the Universal Exhibition in Vienna; 1886 a cash prize, 1888 first prize at the First and Third Exhibition of Works of Ornamental and Reproductive Art in Warsaw; 1886 first prize at the exhibition of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw for his woodcut "Sabala", engraved according to a drawing by Stanislaw Witkiewicz; 1895 a gold medal in Munich and a great silver medal at the Exhibition of Printing Art in St. Petersburg. [za: min. Wikipedia].