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Don Quixote

Witold Manastyrski

Basic information

ID: Ж-6724
Author: Witold Manastyrski
Name: Don Quixote
Date of creation: 1937
Country: Ukraine
Culture: Eastern Europe
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions: 191.5 x 134.5 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: narrative art
Plot: Don Quixote
Provenance: Purchased from the author, 1986
Exposition: Lozinski Palace

Information about author

Author: Witold Manastyrski
Artist's lifetime: 1915–1992
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ukrainian SSR, now Ukraine
Biography: Witold Manastyrski / Vitold Manastyrskyi is a famous Ukrainian artist, a bright representative of the Lviv school of painting. Son of the famous Ukrainian artist Antin Manastyrski, who actually became his first art teacher. Witold received his primary art education ar the Lviv Art School (1929–1934) and completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1935–1939). From 1939 to 1948, he taught drawing and painting at the Lviv School of Applied Arts (now Ivan Trush College of Applied Arts). Since 1947, when Lviv School of Applied and Decorative Arts was opened, Manastyrski held the position of a lecturer in the Department of Drawing, from 1954 – assistant professor, and from 1968 – professor. He became head of the department of painting in 1974. In 1975 the artist was awarded an honorary title of Honoured Art Worker of the Ukrainian SSR. His works are distinguished by their expressiveness, special colourism, pastose and texture manner of painting. While studying in Warsaw, Witold Manastyrski borrowed some of the techniques of the post-impressionists, which he would use to a greater or lesser extent until the 1960s.

Object description

Two riders are depicted in an impressionistic manner, one on a lean, tailless horse, the rider himself also quite thin, with a spear in his hand and a grey-green cloak thrown over his shoulders. He moves into the back of the picture, the other is riding a donkey, rather rounded in stature. The men move along a stony ochre-blue road, as if in different directions, in front of them a grey-black dog clinging frighteningly to the ground. Behind, to the left, a field of yellow-brown tones is depicted, the road narrows to the right edge of the painting, avoiding a tree. Above the scene, the sky stretches in violet-blue and bluish-grey tones. The artist has succeeded in conveying not only the literary subject but also its sarcastic nature, through the moody and quirky landscape and amusing characters of different physiques and funny clothes.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Don Quixote

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