Beach in Miedzyzdroje

The painting made on a small plank presents a view of the beach in Świnoujście in 1886. The composition, enclosed in the form of an elongated, reclining rectangle, is a commonplace genre scene. A woman in a brown dress and a straw hat is sitting on a bench close to the sea on an empty beach that is relatively narrow and shielded on the side of land with a high cliff, overgrown with tall trees. She seems to be absorbed by crocheting, even though she is definitely also minding two children playing in the sand ˗ a boy and a girl in marine outfits. At the back, there is a three-wheeled cart and slightly further, four boats with folded sails dragged onto the land. The frame of the composition is also filled by the second empty bench visible in the distance and a wooden beach chair in the vicinity of dunes. The painting, according to the signature on it, was made by Fritz Wingraf. Unfortunately, the memory and the knowledge about the author of this work have not survived until our times. In line with residual information, it is known that he was born in 1853. It may be concluded that his painting technique was correct and that he was an agile draughtsman ˗ Wingraf created a casual, sketch-like yet at the same time realistic presentation of peaceful family leisure at the beach. Means of artistic expression used by Wingraf build an atmosphere of melancholy and determine the suggestiveness of the middle class scene, evoking associations with later frames of beach scenes filmed by Luchino Visconti during the adaptation of Thomas Mann’s short story, “Death in Venice.”

Dariusz Kacprzak