Pine

Apoloniusz Kędzierski (1861–1939) studied at the Drawing Class in Warsaw under the supervision of Aleksander Kamiński and Wojciech Gerson. As a student of Józef Brandt, he was a frequent guest in Orońsko, at the artist's estate. Thanks to the financial support of Brandt, he continued his studies at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. In 1889 he settled in Warsaw, and was actively involved in the artistic life of the country. The folklore issue and fascination with native folklore like in works of other Young Poland artists played an important role in the painting of Kędzierski. It was an expression of respect for the hard work of peasants, who were watched in the fields, while hauling wood, harvesting or fishing, and that dominated Kędzierski’s work. The landscape theme was equally dear to Kędzierski; the tone of reflection and contemplation of the beauty of the native landscape, noticeable in the approach to nature, reveals the artist's emotional attitude to nature and the surrounding reality. As a mature artist, Kędzierski appreciated the properties of watercolours, which made it possible to quickly record outdoor studies. The pine tree, which is a kind of a portrait of a tree, comes from a late period, painted with watercolours combined with a crayon drawing. Kędzierski used a carefully framed, fragmentary chosen piece of nature, which, following a tendency in the art of the turn of the century, becomes the equivalent and synthesis of a forest landscape. One of the features of the discussed composition is its extraordinary colour sensitivity, manifested by the use of subdued colour patches - green and warm browns perfectly in tune with the grey of the background. The aesthetic value of the presentation is emphasized by the simplification and stylization of the motif, which is also used to analyse the luminous properties of natural light. Under its influence, the fragments of the tree crown and trunk illuminated by the reflections of the sun's rays in some places take on an intense orange colour, and the shapes framed by a flexible, decorative line the shapes blur thus gaining exceptional softness.

Anna Hałata