Insurgents in hut

Henryk Pillati began his artistic education in 1845 at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. During his studies, he made friends with Wojciech Gerson and Franciszek Kostrzewski, among others. He developed his artistic skills in Paris, where he went for a year (1853) and again in the second half of 1857. He settled permanently in Warsaw in 1858. Pillati is considered a born genre painter, appreciated for his sense of observation and sense of humour. His paintings are characterised by haste and imprecision, which he was often reproached for. He painted almost exclusively from his imagination; he did not study nature in the open air or models. In the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin, one of his works shows a genre scene from 1863. In the painting, one can see January Uprising insurgents in a cottage. Inside the hut, a man is sitting with a cap on his head, supporting his elbow on the table and holding his head with his hand in a position expressing contemplation, perhaps even disappointment. Behind the table sits a country couple, and the light is focused on them. The man says something into the woman's ear sitting next to him, embracing her with a tender gesture. To the left, a man is leaning against the sill of a half-open window, facing a figure illuminated by moonlight outside the window. She has most likely come to deliver some news related to the uprising. On the right side, the painter has shown kitchen furnishings such as a cooker and a hood; there are also beams of the cottage ceiling. In the middle of the composition, there is a blurred image with a palm tree behind it on the wall. The colours of the work are pretty varied, from monochromatic warm browns to shades of brown. The red colour on the peasant woman's shawl stands out. The artist has managed to capture the atmosphere of an evening during the uprising - rather gloomy, without hope, almost gloomy.

Beata Małgorzata Wolska