Church of Saint Michael in Lublin

The portfolio Lublin belongs to the mature graphic works of Leon Wyczółkowski, who devoted over thirty years of his artistic activity to graphic art, abandoning oil painting in its favour. He became interested in the graphic medium around 1900. Already as a mature, recognised artist he began to analyse the technical possibilities of etching, aquatint, algraphy, fluorophores and, above all, lithography. Thanks to the similarity of the effects of a lithographic print to drawing and painting and the possibilities for experimentation that best suited Wyczółkowski's preferences and temperament, lithography became the artist's favourite technique. He published cycles of graphic works in low-cost portfolios devoted to the landscape and architecture of Polish cities. In his panoramic city views, shots of historic buildings and meticulously reconstructed architectural details, he combined documentary skills with an extraordinary passion for individual feeling of architecture.

The portfolio Lublin is one of the most beautiful graphic portraits of the city, which the artist supplemented with three boards not related to architecture. These include two versions of Sosenka [The Pine] and Stara lipa w Piotrawinie [The Old Lime in Piotrawina]. Wyczółkowski prepared the drawing sketches during his stay in Lublin in 1918. Composed of seventeen auto-lithographic boards, the portfolio was published a year later in Kraków in twenty copies. After printing the edition assumed 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 Church of St Michael the Archangel, located on an old hill in the heart of the Old Town, was the most important temple in Lublin. The period of progressive ruin of the church, which began in the 18th century, led to its demolition in the mid-19th century. To include the view of the temple in the Lublin portfolio, the artist had to refer to the available iconographic sources, modelling the board on the view by Adam Lerue included in Album Lubelskie. A rather faithful repetition of the compositional scheme and the resulting stiffness lost the lightness and finesse characteristic of the other panels of the portfolio, often subordinated to impression and the desire to capture the unique atmosphere of the city.

Anna Hałata