oil on canvas, 39.5 x 54.8 cm, signed lower left; on the reverse, the artist’s handwritten note in pencil on the top rail of the painting stretcher: No. 55/69/2600/Landscape from Oliwa
Good condition; canvas stretched on the artist’s own stretcher, mounted in a period frame
Private collection, Gdynia
The painting is an exceptionally representative example of the postwar work of Eugeniusz Dzierżencki, an outstanding marine and landscape painter associated with the Coast. The work depicts an intimate courtyard view from Oliwa in Gdańsk, rendered in the artist’s characteristic Post-Impressionist style.
Eugeniusz Dzierżencki (1905 Warsaw – 1990 Sopot)
He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw (later the Academy of Fine Arts) under the guidance of distinguished professors: Władysław Skoczylas and Mieczysław Kotarbiński. He received his diploma in 1937. After the end of World War II, he moved to the coast and settled permanently in Sopot. He was one of the founders and an active member of the Association of Polish Fine Artists (ZPAP) in Gdańsk. In his work, he drew on the traditions of Polish Impressionism and Colorism. He became famous above all as an outstanding marine painter—he painted scenes from the ports of Gdynia and Gdańsk, fishing boats, and cottages on the Hel Peninsula. An equally important strand of his oeuvre consisted of urban and suburban landscapes from the Tri-City and its surroundings (Sopot, Oliwa, Kashubia) as well as views from his numerous travels to southern Europe. His works are held in the collections of many Polish museums (including the National Museum in Gdańsk) as well as in numerous private collections in Poland and abroad.
