Harbour landscape

The harbour and views of Szczecin along the Oder have always been a popular subject for paintings. The artists' works documented the changes in the city's buildings on the Oder, the vessels and the harbour. Many of them, especially from the beginning of the 20th century, showed a modern harbour. Others recorded people's work at reloading goods, views of old fishing boats, merchant cutters, or cargo steamers. They were more concerned with recreating the mood of the port during the various works than with reproducing the urban motif of the area faithfully. At the beginning of the 20th century, a significant change occurred in Szczecin's riverside landscape, which was almost immediately reflected in the paintings. A new, representative element of the city panorama appeared, which was at the same time a passenger ship harbour - Hakenterrasse (today the Chrobry Embankment (Wały Chrobrego)). This urban-architectonic complex, serving as a viewing terrace, quickly became a showpiece of the city and a valued painting motif. It appeared as an independent representation or constituted a background for exposing the port and the Oder River, as in the etching by an unknown artist made between 1920 and 1940, showing ordinary life in the port and exhibiting a small steamboat moored to a pile while loading goods onto a barge. In the background of the composition, we can see the Chrobry Embankment with the building of the Szczecin Regency, the insurance company and the city museum. It is not a shot abundant in details; however, every viewer can quickly identify the fragment watched.

Małgorzata Peszko