Walk in forest

Władysław Podkowiński began his artistic education at Wojciech Gerson's Drawing Class. It was then that his famous friendship with Józef Pankiewicz began, with whom he went in 1885 to St. Petersburg, where, as a free student, he attended the atelier of the battle painter Bohdan Willewalde. At that time, he lived in challenging conditions and most probably because of that, and he fell ill with tuberculosis. Upon returning to Warsaw, he and Pankiewicz rented a studio at Krucza Street, which Aleksander Gierymski also used. In 1889, he went with his friend to Paris for almost nine months, where he lived in the studio of Józef Chełmoński. In the French capital, the Polish artists became acquainted with Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. Both were forced to return to Warsaw due to a lack of means of existence. Their paths parted, but both were precursors of Impressionist painting in Poland. The National Museum in Szczecin holds the painting Przechadzka w lesie [A Walk in the Woods], which belongs to a group of landscape works from the summer of 1893, after returning to Poland when we find in the artist's oeuvre both works influenced by Impressionism and Symbolism. From autumn 1893 to 1894, Szał uniesienia [Rage of Exultation], one of the canonical works of Polish symbolism, was created. In 1893, thanks to the efforts of Feliks Jasieński, Podkowiński was invited to the Sobótka estate in Sandomierz. His health deteriorated considerably. Nevertheless, he spent much time in the open air. In his works, one can see the path from Realism through Impressionism to Symbolism; although these stages did not follow one another, he returned to certain tendencies at different times. Przechadzka w lesie is one of those pictures in which it is difficult to indicate the borderline between realism and impressionism clearly.

Beata Małgorzata Wolska