Jacek Malczewski (1854 Radom - 1929 Krakow), Susanna and the Old Men, 1913.

oil, cardboard on canvas, 101.5 × 151 cm, unframed
Signed and dated p. d.: 1913 / Jmalczewski
The painting is accompanied by an expert's report by Adam Konopacki dated July 10, 2020.
Provenance:
- until 1975 collection of Prof. Kazimierz Wyka (historian and critic of literature, essayist, professor at Jagiellonian University, taking up, among other things, the issue of the work of Jacek Malczewski)
- collection of Władysław Godynia
- collection of Pol-Mot Holding
- private property

"In Babylon there lived a certain husband, named Joakim. He took a wife named Susanna, the daughter of Chilkiah; she was very beautiful and God-fearing. Her parents were righteous and raised their daughter according to the Law of Moses. And Joakim was very rich and had a garden adjacent to his house (...). In that year two old men were chosen from among the people to be judges. (...) These men frequented Joakim's house, and all those who were litigating came to them. And when the people left around noon, Susanna would go for a stroll in her husband's garden. The two old men saw her every day when she went for a stroll, and they began to covet her. They lost their reason and averted their eyes, neglecting to look to Heaven and forgetting about righteous judgments. (...)
So they waited for an opportunity. One day Susanna went out as on previous days only accompanied by two girls, wanting to bathe in the garden; for it was hot. There was no one there except two old men, who watched her from hiding. She said to the girls, "Bring me oil and fragrances, and close the door of the garden so that I can bathe."
They did as she said, and having closed the garden door, they went out a side door to bring what they were commanded. In turn, they did not notice the old men, because they hid. As soon as the girls left, the two old men arose and ran up to her 20 saying: "Behold, the door of the garden is closed and no one sees us, and we desire you. Therefore agree to commune with us! Otherwise we will testify against you that there was a youth with you, and therefore you sent the girls away from you.""
Millennium Bible Online, Poznań 2003, Old Testament, Book of Daniel, Dan 13, 1-21.
Biblical motifs, next to mythological themes, constituted an important and quite extensive position in the work of Jacek Malczewski. Both ancient chimeras, jellyfish, fauns or tritons, as well as Christian saints and Old Testament figures inhabited many of the artist's works. The painting presented at the auction was created in 1913, when Jacek Malczewski was already an established artist, the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow.
"The painting in Jacek Malczewski's art, which is full of symbolic content, opens a wide stream of possible interpretation. It can be assumed that here we have a juxtaposition of two worlds - a biblical scene framed in an original manner that has no parallel in the work of other artists, a scene in which the viewer is both a witness to the deceit of men and is himself one of those who peep at the naked woman. The other world is a symbolic story about the ferocity of instincts, set in the mysterious circumstances of an inaccessible nature. Malczewski has used the theme inspired by the biblical story several times, but here the opinionated painting has been given a form and eloquence that is unique."
Excerpt from Adam Konopacki's expert opinion