A portrait of Joanna Kramsztykówna

For the first time Roman Kramsztyk portrayed his cousin Joasia Kramsztykówna around 1928, when she was more or less a two-year-old girl. Her parents – Irena and Andrzej Kramsztyk lived at 3 Boduena street in Warsaw, opposite the painter's mother, Helena Kramsztykowa, née Fajans. Roman came to Warsaw every year, and he even had a makeshift studio in the yard of the tenement house at 4 Boduena street. The portrait of Joasia was probably painted at her parents' apartment.

The excited girl looks straight ahead with seriousness, but also with confidence. Despite the fact that she is dressed in a festive manner, in a dress, an apron decorated with pompoms, a sweater and an embroidered cap, from under which the fringe appears playfully, the artist has devoted most of his attention to the child's round, charmful face.

A gift of Krzysztof and Janusz Prochaska.

Renata Piątkowska