Head (Self-portait)

Eugeniusz Zak studied in Paris and is associated with the École de Paris artists. Portraits are an essential part of the artist's work. The vast majority of them are images of women. In these thematically undifferentiated works, the stylistic transformations occurring in the artist's oeuvre are well visible. In the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin, there is a painting entitled Głowa męska (autoportret) [The Head of a Man (Self-Portrait)]. It is one of several self-portraits by the artist. We are probably dealing here with a sketch made in pastel on paper, which was used to create Autoportret [The Self-Portrait] from 1916 (painted in oil on canvas). The drawing, located in Szczecin, was made with numerous strokes - accurate but at the same time rather hasty. The face is outlined with a precise, thick contour. Hair and clothing are black and grey, with numerous orange elements. The artist is looking at us with confident eyes - clear and penetrating. The sketch shows the aftermath of his interest in the works of great masters, especially Leonardo da Vinci - it was on this basis that Zak developed his own style of portrayal. There are interesting differences between the pastel and the same representation made in the oil technique. The image was reproduced very accurately, but the shapes acquired a geometric clarity, resulting from his interest in cubism. It can be seen very clearly in the way the hair is presented. In the pastel, we see a hairstyle composed of single hairs, while in the oil painting, we have to do with a black plane, with waves arranged in a spatial form as if depicting an architectural form. Similar changes are visible in the costume. A grey blouse with a stand-up collar in pastel colours changes into a suit with a white shirt and a red scarf around the neck. Everything is shown sharply since the dynamics of the continuous interweaving of the horizontal and vertical representation is preserved. The shapes and the handling of colour are close to the popular representation of the 1920s in the art-deco style. The juxtaposition of pastel and oil painting gives the impression as if a rather realistic portrait has been transformed into a modern form.

Beata Małgorzata Wolska