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Lot 48. Alfred von Wierusz-Kowalski 1849-1915. POLISH
HARVEST FESTIVAL, signed A. Wierusz-Kowalski lower left, oil on canvas, 90 by 137cm., 35¼ by 54in. 60000

Authentication

We are grateful to Eliza Ptaszynska for her assistance in cataloguing this work.

Provenance

Sale: Neumeister, Munich, 7 December 1988, lot 645
Purchased at the above sale by the family of the late owner; thence by descent

Literature

Laszlo Balogh, Alltagschilderung in der Münchner Malerei, Mainburg, 1989, p. 96, fig. 133, illustrated
Hans-Peter Bühler, Jäger, Kosaken und polnische Reiter, Hildesheim, 1993, p. 31, fig. 22, illustrated; p. 161, catalogued (dated circa 1910)
Eliza Ptaszynska, Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski 1849-1915, Warsaw, 2011, p. 146, illustrated

Catalogue Note

The Polish harvest festival dates back to feudal times, when the nobility and larger landowners rewarded their farmers for their hard work. The popular and colourful Dożynki, as it is called in Polish, is a celebration of the conclusion of the growing season.

The typical Dożynki celebration started with Mass, followed by a harvest procession to the local manor house. Traditional costumes of the region were worn by most participants. In the old days the hardest-working girl harvester, or przodownica, wore a smaller version of the harvest wreath as a head piece, as in the present work.

Resident in Munich from 1873, Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski was a painter of Polish customs and rural life. He became best known for his depictions of sledge and coach rides in the snow, but also of summer scenes such as this. These paintings were valued for their exotic flavour by European and American art dealers and collectors alike.

Wierusz-Kowalski approached his subjects narratively in compositions full of dynamism and attention to detail. Finding great success as an artist in Germany, he nevertheless returned regularly to Poland, whose landscapes would remain the main inspiration for his work.

Estimate 60,000-80,000 GBP. Sothebys. 12/16/15

Lot 91. Alfred von Wierusz-Kowalski 1849-1915. POLISH. REKWIZYCJA (REQUISTION); signed and dated 18 Alfred Wierusz Kowalski 75 and inscribed Munchen (lower left), oil on canvas, 22 7/8 by 31 1/8 in., 58 by 79 cm

Authentication

We would like to thank Eliza Ptaszyńka for providing additional catalogue information.

Provenance

Private Collection, San Gabriel, California (by circa 1912)
Thence by descent

Literature

Tygodnik Illustrowany (The Illustrated Weekly), 1876, no. 2 (the woodcut after the painting illustrated)

Catalogue Note

The present work depicts the peasants’ forfeiture of grain in a yeomen’s village, a subject that could be found in other Eastern European cultural and literary sources of the nineteenth century and Wierusz-Kowalski’s early work. Specifically, Rekwizycja (Requistion), like several other early paintings by the artist, is inspired by the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz (Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray: A Nobleman’s Tale from the Years of 1811 and 1812 in Twelve Books of Verse).

Until today, the work has been known only through its 1876 woodcut illustration in Tygodnik Illustrowany, as it has been untraced in a California collection for over a century.

Estimate $60,000-80,000. Sothebys.11/3/15

Lot 1069. Afred von Wierusz-Kowalski (1849 Suwalki – 1915 München). Troika-Schlitten in weiter Winterlandschaft
Delikat gemaltes Werk mit virtuoser, höchst lebendiger Pferdeschilderung. A. v. Wierusz-Kowalski studierte ab 1868 zunächst in Warschau, Dresden und Prag. Seit 1873 besuchte er die Klasse Alexander v. Wagners an der Akademie in München, wo er sich niederließ und dem Kreis polnischer Maler um Józef Brandt anschloss. Von 1875 an beschickte er erfolgreich die bedeutenden Ausstellungen mit seinen flott gemalten, inhaltlich fesselnden Darstellungen aus dem Volksleben Polens und Russlands. Sein bevorzugter Themenkreis waren Reiter, Pferde, Kutschen und von Wölfen verfolgte Schlitten. Öl/Mahagonitafel. R. u. sign. “A. v. Kowalski”. 32 cm x 56 cm. Rahmen.
Lit.: Boetticher, Bd. I/2, S. 784 f.; Thieme-Becker, Bd. XXI, S. 364.
Oil on mahogany panel. Signed.

Reserve 8,500 euro. Schloss Ahlden. 9/13/15