Fisherman

Apoloniusz Kędzierski (1861-1939), as a pupil of Józef Brandt, was a frequent visitor to Orońsko, an estate belonging to the artist. He studied under Aleksander Kamiński and Wojciech Gerson at the Warsaw Drawing Class. Thanks to Brandt's financial support, he continued his education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. In 1889, he settled in Warsaw, getting involved in the artistic life of the country. The motif of a fisherman wading in the water with a characteristic hook - a net stretched on hoops, framed on the background of a landscape treated summarily, is one of many depictions of this representation initiated by the artist in the 1890s, during his trips to the Opoczno region. In his scenes with the fisherman, which differed in the way they were framed, Kędzierski also experimented with technique. The properties of watercolour, which he adopted as a mature artist, made it possible to quickly record outdoor studies that referred to the beauty of the Polish landscape. The painting refers to the problem of folklore, important for Kędzierski and other artists of the Young Poland movement, and expresses respect for the hard work of peasants observed in the fields, hauling wood, harvesting or fishing. An insightful observation of life in complete harmony with nature reveals Kędzierski's sensitivity to colour. In his search for colour effects, he sensitively contrasts cold and warm hues, muting the palette to muted tones of cool blues and greens, muted oranges, browns and fuzzy blacks which form a model. The scene becomes a pretext for analysing the luminous properties of natural light, to which the artist pays particular attention in his painting. Reflections of diffused sunrays glide across the surface of the water and rushes, illuminate the plane of the sky and parts of the man's clothes, evoking, despite the carefully considered, balanced composition, an illusion of lyrical mood and the transience of the moment. This effect is also enhanced by the blurring and vibration of the shadow on the plane of the water moved by the fisherman's movement. The clearly perceptible tone of reflection and reverie on the beauty of the native landscape reveals the artist's emotional attitude to nature and the surrounding reality.

Anna Hałata