Wojciech KOSSAK (1856-1942), "Soldier and Nun" (1914)

Author: Wojciech Kossak
Title: Soldier and Nun (1914)
Technique: gouache, watercolor, paper
Dimensions: 26.4 x 20.2 cm
Dimensions with frame: 39.5 x 32.5 cm
Signed and dated l.d.: "Wojciech Kossak | 1914"
Inscribed l.d.: "in front of the war hospital | Rozwadowice".
On the reverse, a statement by Leszek Ludwikowski dated 1974.

Artwork description:
Wojciech Kossak is one of the most recognizable Polish artists known primarily for his oil compositions of battle and genre subjects. However, it should be remembered that the artist was also an accomplished watercolorist.
Although he used this technique relatively infrequently, he was very adept at laying down patches of paint, conveying the character of the scene depicted in a somewhat lighter manner than in oil works.
The featured work, "Soldier and Nun," from 1914, depicts the titular pair of figures standing in a sketchily marked landscape. The nun is captured at the moment of dressing the forearm of a wounded man in uniform. The woman's habit and cap indicate her affiliation with the Order of the Grey Nuns, who often cared for the sick and performed medical services as hospital sisters. The author's description on the left indicates that the immortalized scene takes place in front of a war hospital. Perhaps this was referring to Rozwadów, where a field hospital was located during World War I.
The offered painting by Wojciech Kossak is painted with a spot of color, with admirable sensitivity, visible both in the parts of the figures' faces and their clothes, but it is worth noting here also the nun's hands and the mastery of the movement of her left hand, not easy to capture with the technique of water-based paint, on such a small format at the same time.

Wojciech Kossak's biography is available on the Krakow Auction House website [SEE].

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