Vase, Waclaw Bębnowski, Phaeton with quadriga, 1920s/30s. Terracotta. Dimensions H 34cm, Diameter 18cm.
An identical terracotta vase is in the collection and on permanent display at the Museum of Kujawska and Dobrzyńska Lands in Wloclawek.
Lit. Katalog dzieł ze zbiorów Muzeum Ziemi Kujawskiej i Dobrzyńskiej we Włocławku, Włocławek 2009, p. 46.
Throughout his artistic life, Waclaw Bębnowski (1865-1945) was a great advocate of Art Nouveau and of concepts linking art with utilitarian objects. The artist was educated in Moscow, Krakow, Paris and Munich, and even then betrayed an interest in the emerging modernism. In the 1890s, together with Leon Kowalski and Stanislaw Bedzinski, he founded the pioneering "Cracow Artistic Company" in Poland. He created decorative sculptures and applied art of great interest to the public. In 1900 he became independent and established his own studio in Sluzew. He limited his contacts with the Krakow and Warsaw art world focusing on his creative work. he gained a reputation as a loner. He created ceramics, terracotta and casts. In his works he often used, derived from the art of Auguste Rodin, motifs of half-sunken figures in the plane of a vessel. His works - like the presented vase with the image of Faeton - often depicted symbolic motifs.
