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To the Cross

Seweryn Bieszczad

Basic information

ID: Ж-487
Author: Seweryn Bieszczad
Name: To the Cross
Date of creation: 1880
Country: Poland
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions: 17.5 x 27.5 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: genre art
Provenance: Collection of Boleslaw Orzechowicz

Information about author

Author: Seweryn Bieszczad
Artist's lifetime: 1852–1923
Country: Poland
Biography: Seweryn Bieszczad was a Polish artist and a representative of the Realist movement. The author of landscapes, genre paintings, and portraits. A talented watercolourist. He was born on 18 November 1852 in the town of Jaslo into the family of an artist. Between 1868 and 1876, he studied at the Krakow School of Arts under Wladyslaw Luszkiewicz and Jan Matejko. He continued his studies at the Munich Academy of Arts under the guidance of A. Wagner. He trained in Dresden as the Vienna Academy scholarship holder. Since 1891, he lived and worked in Korosno, where he created most of his works, mainly landscapes and panoramas of the city and its surroundings.

Object description

The painting "To the Cross" is paired with the work "Rural Funeral," depicting the beginning and end of a person's life, respectively. The piece depicts a scene on a gentle spring morning, where a festively dressed family walks to church for a christening. A young mother leads the procession with an older child. The woman is holding a prayer book in her hand. Behind her, the godparents walk with the infant, followed by the rest of the family. The oldest member of the family, holding a rosary, completes the procession. The fresh, tender greenery and the clear blue sky foretell a bright future for the newborn child. The event depicted in the painting takes place against the backdrop of a delicately rendered rural landscape with exceptionally harmonious, expertly conveyed colours.

Inscriptions

At the bottom right is the author's signature and date: "Bieszczad Seweryn 1880".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

To the Cross

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