Lot 16. Józef PANKIEWICZ (1866 Lublin, Pologne – 1940 La Ciotat). Anemones in a vase. About 1920-25. Oil on cardboard 35 x 27 cm. Signed lower left “Pankiewicz. On the back of the cardboard, in the upper middle the number 5, below a black stamp in the form of a palette with the inscription: BLANCHET | 38| RUE BONAPARTE|PARIS. Estimate 15,000 – 20,000 euro. Millon. 05/31/23. Sold 21,000 euro

Na aukcji zadziałała magia nazwiska wykonawcy bo martwe natury innych artystów, może nawet ciekawsze, nie osiągnęły takich wyników.

Known for his landscapes as well as his portraits, the painter Józef Pankiewicz is also a master of the still life, in which he endeavors to show the beauty of objects, often precious, like Japanese vases. The bouquet of flowers, first integrated as one of the decorative elements, then as a central and autonomous element, became one of his favorite motifs. He painted different species of flowers: carnations, mimosas, oleanders, chrysanthemums, gladioli, peonies…but he had a preference for anemones and roses. It is certainly the variety of colors of anemones that enchanted him, giving him the opportunity to build chromatic harmonies based on the opposition of warm colors (red) and cold (navy blue and purple). The flowery subject also allowed the painter to show his pictorial mastery in the rendering of the surfaces of the vases – plain or patterned, glass, terracotta, glazed, delighting the viewer with the reflections of the light. A simple pitcher with a handle placed on a barely marked table, with a spray of multicolored anemones, becomes a pretext to play on a clever contrast of reds, purples and acid greens. This painting, probably painted in the early 1920s when the painter moved to Paris, rue Bonaparte, justifies his reputation as a fine colorist.

Józef Pankiewicz (1866-1940), painter and engraver, studied in Warsaw in 1885, then in Saint Petersburg, before becoming a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. A fervent admirer of French art, he visited France regularly from 1889 onwards and settled there permanently after the Great War. His merits in the propagation of French art in Poland earned him the Legion of Honor in 1927. He was friends with French artists and art critics such as Paul Signac, Pierre Bonnard, Robert Delaunay and Félix Fénéon. His solo exhibitions in Paris were held at Bernheim-Jeune in 1922, Galerie Zborowski in 1927, Galerie Girard in 1929, and Galerie Sèvres in 1931. His works, highly appreciated in Poland, where they are kept in the main museums of the country, are also in French collections, including those of the Museum of Fine Arts in Grenoble and Marseille, or the Museum of the Annonciade in Saint-Tropez. CEBM – Bobrowska-Mielniczuk appraisal firm