Teodor Axentowicz, Portrait of a Woman in a Pink Dress

Pastel, watercolor, cardboard, 58 x 47 cm,
Signed by: T. Axentowicz.

"Exquisiteness - this word best describes the dominant feature of Axentowicz's work. There is nothing bright, screaming, pulling out of space. Measure puts its stamp on everything, not putting up with too bold accents of color, nor decisive, strong contours of shape, a measure that harmonizes details into a gentle harmony that works with focus and calm. Axentowicz does not draw his strongest impressions from nature, he is struck by the shape of the human body and the human figure - the head above all, namely the head of a woman. His proper kind are those, so well known, heads that are saddened, pensive, dreaming, quiet, sweet, anemic heads of boudoir women, blooming in a hothouse, away from the harsh blast of wind and the scorching rays of the sun, women whose complete passivity is the secret of grace, who are adored like flowers, who are cuddled like silks and lace, who have only this in common with life, that they are alive..." wrote Antoni Chołoniewski in the pages of "World" in 1906.

Teodor AXENTOWICZ (1859-1938)
In 1878-1882 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in the atelier of G. Hackl, A. Wagner and G. Benczur. From 1895 to 1934 he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow and from 1910 and 1927 to 1928 was the rector of the Academy. He painted portraits, landscapes, genre scenes, Hutsul motifs and flowers. Exhibitions at TPSP in Krakow, Lviv and PZSP in Warsaw.