Jewish district in Lublin

The Lublin portfolio is one of the mature graphic works of Leon Wyczółkowski (1852-1936), who devoted over thirty years of his artistic activity to graphic art, abandoning oil painting on its behalf. He became interested in the graphic medium around 1900. Already as a mature artist, he began to analyse the technical possibilities of etching, aquatint, algraphy, fluorophores and, above all, lithography. Thanks to the similar effects of a lithographic print and drawing and painting, and the possibility of experimentation, which best suited Wyczółkowski's preferences and temperament, lithography became his favourite technique. He published cycles of graphic works in low-circulation folders devoted to the landscape and architecture of Polish cities. In panoramic views, shots of historic buildings and meticulously reconstructed architectural details he combined documentary skill with an extraordinary passion for individual feeling of architecture. The Lublin portfolio is one of the most beautiful graphic portraits of the city, which the artist supplemented with three boards unrelated to urban architecture. These include two versions of Sosenki and Stara lipa in Piotrawin. Wyczółkowski prepared the sketches during his stay in Lublin in 1918. Composed of seventeen auto-lithographic sheets, the portfolio was published a year later in Krakow in twenty copies. After printing the edition planned by the artist, the lithographic stones were destroyed, which in Wyczółkowski's case was a frequent practice and gave his prints a unique character.

Jews settling down in Lublin already in the times of Casimir the Great, occupied the area at the foot of Castle Hill. In time, they led to the establishment of the Higher Talmudic University, a synagogue and one of the first Hebrew printing houses. In the foreground, the tenement houses of the Jewish quarter create a backdrop for the old town buildings and the Trinity Tower towering over them. The architectural details of the buildings, barely sketched with an expressive line, and the silhouettes of passers-by hastily drawn by the artist were subordinated to make an impression and the desire to capture the atmosphere of the district which no longer exists.

Anna Hałata