Dominican Order seen from Podwale

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.

The Dominican church and monastery, located within the defensive walls of the Old Town, on the scarp of the Old Town hill, is one of the most valuable and oldest religious complexes in Lublin. Until the theft in 1991, the sanctuary housed the miraculous relic of the Holy Cross Tree, which attracted pilgrims from all over the country. In one of the most atmospheric sheets, Wyczółkowski showed the establishment from the north-eastern side, presenting it in a distance, visible from the perspective of strongly framed roofs in the foreground. Their heavy mass contrasts with the lightness of the misty walls of the temple, highlighted by chiaroscuro, which, melting in the evening twilight, reflect the mood of the ending day.

Anna Hałata