Study of Temple of Aesculapius in gardens of Villa Borghese

Aleksander Gierymski is one of the most outstanding representatives of realism. He came from a Warsaw intellectual family. His older brother was the painter Maksymilian Gierymski. In 1867, he began his education at the Warsaw Drawing Class. Between 1868 and 1869, he developed his technique at the Royal-Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Georg Hiltensperger, Alexander Strähuber and Hermann Anschütz), and between 1870 and 1872 in the composition class of Karl Piloty. In 1869, he studied in the private studio of Franz Adam. In 1871, he travelled to Italy, visiting Venice and Verona. In the early period of his artistic work, he devoted most of his time to painting realistic scenes. He accurately depicted the appearance and activities of individual people. One of the artist's most famous works, Żydówka z cytrynami [A Jewess with Lemons)] 1881, comes from this period. The next paintings from the years 1883 and 1884 (Powiśle, Przystań na Solcu [The Harbour on Solec], Święto Trąbek [Feast of Trumpets]) show a gradual departure from such a rigorous realism. In the last years of his life, Gierymski created with a sense of health and creative tension. With time, he returned to realism. In the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin, there is a late sketch made in the open air, precisely in the gardens of the Villa Borghese in Rome. The artist made a study of Aesculapius' temple located on an island on an artificial lake created at the end of the 18th century by Jacob Moore, who referred to the style of English gardens. The small temple in Ionic style was built in 1786-1787 by Antonio and Maria Asprucci. The painting can be considered atypical of the artist's oeuvre in that it has a very thin painterly layer with no textural effects. It is assumed that this is the result of subsequent conservation work rather than the artist's intentions.

Beata Małgorzata Wolska