Girl

Leon Wyczółkowski is one of the leading representatives of Young Poland. He began to study painting in Warsaw in 1869 in the Drawing Class under Antoni Kamiński, Rafał Hadziewicz and Wojciech Gerson (until 1875). Then he went to the atelier of Alexander Wagner in Munich. In 1877-1879, he improved his skills under Jan Matejko at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków. In 1878, he went on a trip to Paris. In 1879, he settled for a year in Lviv, then moved to Warsaw, where he stayed until 1883. From the perspective of the work analysed here, the artist's more prolonged stay in Ukraine (1883¬-1894) is critical. Researchers of his works sometimes believe that it was the time that brought a stylistic breakthrough, which started the realistic current of his work. In the first years of his stay in Ukraine the main characters of Wyczółkowski's paintings were simple people and the sun. The period is sometimes referred to as the Impressionist stage and is dated around 1889-1896. Dziewczyna [The Girl] from 1892 is a painting by Leon Wyczółkowski from the above-mentioned impressionistic period. Like other works from that time, the composition is created based on the organisation of light and the juxtaposition of colours, which create a clear contrast. A young woman looks straight ahead and fills almost the whole picture. The sense of apparent proximity is emphasised by the truncation of the top of her head. The artist succeeds in portraying calmness and thoughtfulness on the face, further emphasised by dark eyes. The arrangement of the hands also plays an important role - delicate and refined. Impressionist influences can be seen, among others, in the desire to depict the ambiguous gaze of the model. Another critical factor is the light falling on the left side of the face and arm. An interesting effect is also brought about by green and red spots on the woman's face. It creates a reflection of the background and her outfit as if the elements were intertwined thanks to the lighting. There is a lack of contour, and spontaneous, disorderly brushstrokes catch the eye. These factors contribute to the skilful depiction of different ways of perception, which expresses the complexity of the personality and experiences of the people depicted in a portrait.

Beata Małgorzata Wolska