Józef Pankiewicz
1866 - 1940

Józef Pankiewicz was born into a family of intellectuals. In 1884-1885 he was a student of Wojciech Gerson and Aleksander Kamiński at the School of Drawing in Warsaw. In the fall of 1885, he went to the Academy in Petersburg for nine months to further his education. While there, he was able to study paintings by the Old Masters, an experience that had a decisive influence on his future development as an artist. During 1886-1889, he was involved with a group of naturalists – writers, musicians and painters – who contributed to The Wanderer magazine. In 1889, he and Władysław Podkowiński were in Paris, where they came into contact with Impressionist painting. They exhibited their Impressionist works in Warsaw in 1890 and 1891, however, their presentation was unfavorably received both by critics and viewers who had not been prepared for an encounter with that art style. Discouraged, Pankiewicz abandoned the Impressionist technique altogether, turning to Nocturne and Symbolic compositions. At that time, he settled in Warsaw, but frequently traveled abroad, mainly to Italy and France. In 1906, he was appointed Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. He lived there until 1914, while he continued to spend his summer vacations in France. In 1908, he met and eventually became friends with Pierre Bonnard. Pankiewicz spent World War I in Spain and afterwards returned to live in Paris until 1923. He returned to Kraków for a brief time to resume work at the Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1925, the Professor settled for good in Paris where he founded and ran the Kraków branch of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Pankiewicz was a member of the Society of Polish Artists, "Sztuka", the Society of Polish Artists in Paris, the Association of Polish Artists in France and, beginning in 1928, he joined the Manes Association of Artists. In 1927, Józef Pankiewicz was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government and, in 1933, the government of Poland granted him the Commander's Cross of Polonia Restituta Order to commemorate his forty years of artistic contributions.

Pankiewicz played a decisive and influential role in modern Polish art. His students founded the Kapists (Committee of Paris in Polish is Komitet Paryski, K.P., hence "Kapists") in 1923 to organize a trip to Paris, and, as a result, in 1925, a branch of the Academy of Fine Arts of Kraków was established in the capital of France. The Professor-painter ran this institution until 1930. He developed his own teaching methods, emphasizing the importance of sensitivity to color and form. He also stressed the value of studying the history of art and paintings from the past, although above all, he encouraged admiration of French art. His most outstanding students were Józef Czapski, Jan Cybis, Mojżesz Kisling and Simon Mondzain.

An extremely versatile painter, Pankiewicz freely and without restraint benefited from the achievements and experience of various masters and painting trends. He traveled extensively, visiting museums to continue his study of the paintings of the Old Masters, especially those of Veronese and the Dutch.

The artist painted portraits, still lifes, landscapes and genre scenes. He was also involved in decorative painting. From 1928 to 1932, he worked on a panneaux for the Royal Chapel in Wawel Castle. He made some prints as well, mainly dry-point engravings and etchings. Apart from Leon Wyczółkowski, Józef Pankiewicz was the most outstanding Polish graphic artist of the first half of the twentieth century. His artistic creations constantly evolved: beginning with the early naturalistic pictures (Vegetable Market on the Square behind the Iron Gate); then the Impressionist studies (Summer, Cart with Hay); followed by the symbolic compositions characterized by a limited range of pure colors (Hackney-coach at Night, Park in Duboj); then works done in the manner of Post-Impressionism, Cubism and Fauvism. Finally, in the twenties and the thirties the artist turned to classical art, adopting a moderate and harmonious style.

Jerzy Wolff, when analyzing the art of Pankiewicz, wrote: "In spite of his great culture, as a painter he appears to be a talented student of the Western masters, (and his art) is a bridge joining us with European art" (see Wolff 1946, p 12).

His works were shown in numerous group exhibitions in the country and abroad. Felix Fénéon at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris organized his most significant one-man show in 1922.

-- Anna Król

Works in the collection: