Dimensions: 64 x 48.5 cm (inside the mat)
signed, dated, and inscribed lower right: '4 | V | NP | NΠ | Witkacy 1937 | (T.C)'
Provenance
Maria Hoffman Collection, Zakopane
private collection, Zakopane
Private collection, Poland
Biography
His father was Stanisław Witkiewicz, a well-known critic, painter, and writer, and the creator of the so-called “Zakopane style” in architecture. From 1905 to 1910, he studied sporadically at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków under Józef Mehoffer and with Władysław Ślewiński in Poronin. He traveled to Italy, France, and Germany. In 1914, he participated in Bronisław Malinowski’s ethnographic expedition to Australia, from where he returned to Europe upon hearing news of the outbreak of World War I. His early paintings were marked by the Young Poland movement and the influence of P. Gauguin and Wł. Ślewiński. Later, he developed his own form of expressionism. Over time, as a result of his theoretical reflections on form, he gave up painting. He founded a one-man “Portrait Firm” and limited himself to creating pastel portraits for a living, often produced under the influence of stimulants that allowed him to experiment with form. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz wrote four novels, over 40 plays, and numerous articles and essays on painting, literature, theater, and philosophy. During the interwar period, he lived mainly in Zakopane. After the outbreak of World War II, he fled from the Germans to the eastern borderlands, where he committed suicide on September 18, 1939, in the village of Jeziory in Polesie.
