Fair in the town

Small-sized picture from the collection of the Potocki family, former owners of Łańcut and the castle; it depicts a genre scene – a fair taking place in the town. A scene full of movement, on the right riders on horses, on the left stalls and people moving around them, in the background an inn with an inscription above the entrance – PIWO, WÓDKI (BEER, VODKAS). Subdued colour palette, enlivened by the colourful outfits of buyers and sellers; painted in oil on board. Painting in a wide wooden, gilded frame, richly decorated with an ornament in a striped pattern. The painting is signed in the lower right corner “Tadeusz Rybkowski 1884 r” and it is very typical to the work of this artist. Tadeusz Rybkowski (born in 1848 in Kielce, died in September 1926 in Lviv) was a Polish painter and illustrator. After passing his matriculation exams in Kielce, he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków under Władysław Łuszczkiewicz, and then for two years in Vienna at the local Academy of Fine Arts, where he was a student of the Viennese painter Hans Makart. In 1878 he set up his studio in Vienna. In 1893 he settled permanently in Lviv, where he became a professor at the Public Industrial School and also opened a private school of painting for women. He painted a lot, especially small-size pictures (like the one kept in Łańcut), depicting scenes from the life of the people, weddings, fairs, inns, but also, during the First World War, paintings related to the fights. He was also a portrait artist. He most often used the watercolour technique, but also worked in oil. In Lviv he designed tapestries for the Meeting Room of the Railway Directorate and wall paintings for the Municipal Theatre. In his paintings of genre scenes, he rendered the details of folk costumes with great precision, his watercolour paintings had a reportage character. He was also the author of scenes from the life of Emperor Franz Joseph, depicted on fans which Roman Potocki, the Third Entailer of Łańcut, presented to the two Archduchesses at the Polish Ball in Vienna in 1886. His paintings (3 pieces), including the one in question, are exhibited in the Northern Corridor on the second floor of the castle.