Aleksander Kotsis
1836 - 1877

Aleksander Kotsis was born into a peasant family. From 1850 to 1860, he studied in the Kraków School of Fine Arts in the studios of Wojciech Korneli Stattler, Władysław Łuszczkiewicz and Aleksander Płonczyński. During his studies, he made friends with Artur Grottger, Andrzej Grabowski and Izydor Jabłoński. Granted a government scholarship he continued his education at the Academy in Vienna where he maintained close relations with Polish artists Artur Grottger, Wilhelm Leopolski and Andrzej Grabowski. In 1862, he moved to Kraków from where, in 1867, he traveled to Paris and Brussels. In 1870-75, he made trips to Vienna and Munich, where, with short intervals, he remained until 1875. He also travelled to Lithuania.

In 1858 Kotsis went hiking into the Tatra Mountains from Zakopane for the first time with Jan Matejko, Florian Cynk and Władysław Tarnowski. In 1860, he also hiked through Maków and Zawoja up to Babia Góra. He spent the summer of 1868 in the Tatra Mountains, painting nature with Józef Szermentowski. In 1870, he went to the Alps with Zygmunt Sidorowicz and Franciszek Streitt. He also made trips to Bavaria (with Antoni Kozakiewicz and Franciszek Streitt) and in 1872 he traveled to the Tyrol. He was most of all known as a lover of the Tatra Mountains and everything that was connected with them.

During the January (1863) Uprising, he painted patriotic compositions with elements of martyrdom. Later he almost exclusively painted sentimental folk scenes from near Kraków and Zakopane, as well as landscapes and portraits aiming at depicting the psychological character of the sitter.

Kotsis used oils and watercolors. He left several hundred works, half of which consist of sketches, some of great artistic value, often being refined studies of color. Forgotten at the turn of the century, Kotsis was rediscovered in 1932 by artists associated with the Kapists (Paris Committee) after the exhibition in National Museum in Kraków. Paintings by Kotsis were enthusiastically praised by Jan Cybis: "Kotsis' works are intriguing for they were painted for artistic reasons at the times when artists mainly focused on the subject. [...] In this respect Kotsis' artistic activity differs significantly from everything that was done at the time in Polish arts" (see Cybis 1932). Mieczysław Porębski also evaluated Kotsis' works very thoroughly: "he became a mature artist much faster than other painters of the same age, and this makes his best works created in the 1860s and 70s the greatest artistic achievements of the time. Their easiness, light, warmth and sensitivity as far as both subject and the object is concerned, the feel for color, suppressed but not without individual character, all this proves his inborn, intuitive rather than reflective and speculative talent" (see Porębski, 1991: 47-48).

-- Anna Król

Works in the collection: