Landscape from area of Tenczyn (Planty)

Jan Stanislawski is a representative of symbolism in Polish landscape painting. He received his artistic education at the Warsaw Drawing Class under the guidance of Wojciech Gerson. He continued his education in 1884-1885 at the Kraków School of Fine Arts under Władysław Łuszczkiewicz. He perfected his workshop skills in the Paris workshop of Charles Émile Auguste Durand (1885-1888). He stayed in Paris until 1895 and drew inspiration for his works, mainly from Impressionism. In 1897, together with Jacek Malczewski, he was appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków, reformed two years earlier, where he headed the landscape class. He initiated the custom of excursions and later longer outdoor trips to the surroundings of Kraków and Zakopane. He taught a close relationship with nature, which he combined with metaphysical considerations because it was in nature that he saw the essence of being. 1901 saw an important stylistic change in the artist's work, connected with a symbolic phase in painting. Stanisławski often repeated the motif of spring orchards and parks in bloom, which depicted the biological vitality of nature and delight in existence. Trees had an ornamental character in many shots of Kraków's Planty (Planty w Krakowie na wiosnę [The Planty in Kraków in Spring], 1903). The landscape from the Szczecin collection depicts a fragment of the eponymous plantations, i.e. tree crowns, and not a specific park called the Planty in Kraków; it is one of the examples of works from that period. It shows a single, blossoming cherry tree, which is presented against the background of a green hill. It is worth noting the way of painting, characteristic of plein-air works, namely, the imprecise application of paint has fixed the dynamic composition on cardboard (visible especially near the branches of the tree). The small format of the painting is also typical of when the artist painted mainly on cardboard (as in this case) and boards.

Beata Małgorzata Wolska