Elviro ANDRIOLLI (1836-1893), Cheers to the Jackknife! from the Pan Tadeusz Cycle, 1882

woodcut, paper, 24 x 19 cm

woodcut on tint, 24 x 19 cm in light passe - partout size 34 x 28 cm signed and dated on woodcut plate l.d. "Andriolli 1881" and by the xylographer p.d. "A.Zajkowski"
Michał Elwiro Andriolli - metrically Elwiro Michał Andriolli (born November 14, 1836 in Vilnius, died August 23, 1893 in Nałęczów) - Polish draughtsman, illustrator and painter, representative of Romanticism.
Andriolli specialized in painting and graphics. He used mainly pencil, ink and gouache. He collaborated with Polish illustrated magazines, among others: "Tygodnik Illustrowany", "Kłosy", "Tygodnik Powszechny", "Biesiada Literacka", "Wieniec", for which he made many illustrations depicting objects built on the lands of the Republic of Poland (located on the present territories of Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus) - many no longer existing today.
He was a sought-after book illustrator who worked with Warsaw, Paris and London publishers. Among the best-known works of Polish and foreign literature illustrated by Andriolli, we should mention such works as J.I. Kraszewski's The Old Tale, J. Slowacki's Lilla Weneda, E. Orzeszkowa's Meir Ezofowicz, W. Syrokomla's Born Jan Dęboróg, Memoirs of a Quaestor I. Chodźko, Marya by A. Malczewski and The Last of the Mohicans by J.F. Cooper, Legend of the Ages by W. Hugo or Romeo and Juliet by W. Shakespeare. The artist worked intensively on paintings for the works of Adam Mickiewicz, being the author, among others, of the most famous and so far most popular illustrations to Pan Tadeusz.
Andrzej Zajkowski (born 1851 in Warsaw, died November 28, 1914 there) - outstanding Warsaw wood engraver, one of the leading representatives of Polish xylography, excellent reproducer of drawings by Michal Andriolli.
Active in 1865-1889, he gained early recognition in artistic circles. His works began to appear in "Kłosy" when he was less than 15 years old, at the age of 20 he engraved drawings by Andriolli, with whom he collaborated for the longest time (one of Zajkowski's last works, entitled Concert over Concerts, was according to Andriolli). In 1881 he was commissioned to create woodcuts according to Andriolli's drawings for Adam Mickiewicz's Pan Tadeusz (published in Lviv in 1882). In addition to Andriolli, Zajkowski engraved the works of other outstanding painters and illustrators (including Jozef Chelmonskir, Jozef Buchbinder, Wojciech Gerson, Julian Falat, Apoloniusz Kedzierski, Juliusz Kossak, Franciszek Kostrzewski, Jan Matejko, Jozef Pankiewicz, Henryk Pillati, Wladyslaw Szerner, Leon Wyczolkowski and many others). In 1876, he established a short-lived wood engraving shop with Jan Styfi. He received numerous awards for his artistic achievements, including at the Ornamentation Exhibition in Warsaw in 1886-1888 and the Printing Art Exhibition in St. Petersburg in 1895.