Threshing in barn

Stanisław Czajkowski first studied in Warsaw under Wojciech Gerson, and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków under Jacek Malczewski, Leon Wyczółkowski and Józef Mehoffer. He improved his skills at the Academy in Munich (under L. Herterich) and the Académie Julian in Paris (under J. P. Laurens and B. Constant). After his return to Cracow, he still attended the studio of Jan Stanislawski. He travelled a lot around the country, finding inspiration for his works. He debuted in Poland in 1902. He exhibited his works in Kraków at the Society of Friends of Fine Arts and in Warsaw, Lviv, and Poznań. In 1903, he organised the first landscape exhibition in Kraków together with Stanisław Kamocki, Stefan Filipkiewicz, Antoni Procajłowicz and Henryk Szczygliński. It was the period when his work was most influenced by Stanisławski's symbolic landscapes, from which he drew his sketchy brushwork. Like other representatives of Young Poland, he depicted the countryside, both its rituals and everyday life. An example showing his interest in the work of peasants is the painting Młocka w stodole [Threshing in a barn] (1903), purchased from DESA Poznań in 1956. It depicts a grass-covered yard enclosed by wooden farm buildings covered with a low thatched roof. In the open doorway, against the greenery background visible on the other side of the building, there is a figure of a working man with a flail in his hand. On the right side of the painting, there is a pile of sheaves; on the left, a flock of hens, a sheaf leaning against the wall, and a lying ladder by the open door.

Beata Małgorzata Wolska