Back

Self-Portrait

Bruno Schulz

Basic information

ID: Г-V-110
Author: Bruno Schulz
Name: Self-Portrait
Technique: drawing
Material: paper pencil Indian ink
Dimensions: 52 x 37 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: portraiture
Plot: Portrait
Provenance: Collection of Lviv City Gallery

Information about author

Author: Bruno Schulz
Artist's lifetime: 1892–1942
Country: Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, now Ukraine
Biography: Bruno Schulz was an artist and writer of Jewish origin, a native of Drohobych (as of 12.07.1892, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy territory, later the Second Polish Republic). He studied at Franz Joseph I Drohobych State Gymnasium (in 1919–1939 – King Wladyslaw Jagiello State Lyceum and Gymnasium in Drohobych, now the Ivan Franko Drohobych State Pedagogical University). Eventually, the young man decided to continue his education in architecture at Lviv Polytechnic University (1910) but did not complete his studies due to health problems. Later, he studied at the Polytechnic Institute and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. This was the time when the artist developed his style with an original system of images and a peculiar visual language. The result of this work was, in particular, "The Book of Idolatry" (series of 1920–1922, first edition in 1983 as part of the Centre Georges-Pompidou project). At the same time, Bruno Schulz was recognised for regular publications of his prose ("The Cinnamon Shops", 1933; "Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass", 1935) and translations ("The Trial" by Franz Kafka, 1935–1936, in collaboration with Jozefina Szelinska), and participation in the publication of significant literary texts (e.g., Witold Gombrowicz's "Ferdydurke", 1937–1938). At the same time, he communicated with significant cultural figures, such as Zofia Nalkowska and Deborah Vogel. Jozefina Szelinska, who was in a relationship with Bruno Schulz from 1933 to 1937, was of great importance in terms of her influence on his creative work and posthumous postwar popularisation. In addition, in the late 1940s, Jozefina Szelinska provided materials for Jerzy Ficowski's publications about Bruno Schulz, but for personal reasons, she remained anonymous. Among other key personalities from Bruno Schulz's environment, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz is worth mentioning, and in this context, the essay "Do Stanisława Ignacego Witkiewicza" ("Tygodnik Ilustrowany" 1935, No. 17) is worthy of attention. In the thesis "Loneliness is a reagent that provokes reality to fermentation and thus precipitation of figures and colours", the author appears to be a remarkably frank and sensitive exponent of the "age of acceleration". Studying the context of time through trips to European countries and active participation in the exhibition process became a prerequisite for Bruno Schulz's "visibility", not only at the local level. There are prerequisites to assert that "Schulz and Gombrowicz, along with Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, were a literary phenomenon of the interwar period. Their work was revolutionary and simultaneously difficult, incomprehensible, and 'oppositional to Polish literary life' (Tymoteusz Skiba, 2020)". However, as early as 1938, Bruno Schulz was awarded the Golden Academic Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature. After the annexation of Western Ukraine to the Ukrainian SSR, Bruno Schulz took part in exhibition projects of the newly created Union of Artists. He was murdered during the Holocaust in the Drohobych ghetto on 19.11.1942. Essential aspects of the memorialisation of Bruno Schulz and his work are thematic exhibitions at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Warsaw) and the Drohobychchyna Museum (the premises of the Palace of Arts in Drohobych, Villa Bianchi), and a room-museum located in the former gymnasium of Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University in Drohobych. In addition, the Bruno Schulz International Festival (SchulzFest) was held in Drohobych regularly, with scientific presentations and lectures in addition to theatrical, literary, and exhibition components.

Object description

In a small city alleyway, closed in by houses, a man in a three-quarter turn to the right stands in front of an easel. He is drawing something on paper with his left hand. His legs are slightly apart; his forehead is furrowed. The man looks at the viewer with his black eyes. His hair is black and smoothly combed. He is dressed in a city suit without a jacket and a collar around his neck. The man's figure casts an elongated shadow on the street.

Inscriptions

At the bottom middle is the author's signature: "Bruno Schulz"

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Self-Portrait

Other