Joseph MEHOFFER (1869-1946), "Our Lady of Sorrows. Heart of the Mother of God," 1926

Color lithograph, 33.6 x 42.2 cm, signed in pencil p.d.: Jozef Mehoffer; dedication in pencil l.d.: To Mr. Jan Hoplinski I offer my friendship. Graphic from the collection of Henryk Bednarski (1907-1991), a prominent Lviv collector and bibliophile, author of texts on art, archaeology and architecture. The painted version of the above lithograph, dated 1911, is in a private collection; also in the private collection is the composition "Sacred Heart of Jesus" dated 1911. (L. Ristujczina, "Jozef Mehoffer genius of Polish Art Nouveau", SBM Publishing House, Warsaw, 2020, il. pp. 12, 212-213) The presented lithograph was dedicated by J. Mehoffer to Jan Hoplinski (1887-1974) - painter, painting technologist, educator. He was a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow in the studio of Stanisław Dębicki. From 1923 he taught painting technology and techniques at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, and from 1948 he was an associate professor at the Academy. The National Museum in Cracow has a portrait of Jan Hoplinski from 1919 by Jozef Mehoffer, also with an author's dedication to the portrayed.

Painter, creator of stained glass and polychrome paintings, graphic artist, illustrator, outstanding representative of the art of Young Poland. He studied at the Cracow SSP under J. Matejko and W. Łuszczkiewicz. In 1889-1890, he continued his studies at the Vienna Academy, and then in Paris at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Colarossi (1891-1896). In 1902 he became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. He was its rector from 1914 to 1918 and from 1932 to 1933. He was a member of the TAP "Art", of which he was a founding member, and was involved in the activities of the Society "Polish Applied Art". He participated in many exhibitions, including those of the Warsaw TZSP, TPSP in Krakow, and the "Art" Society. He received numerous awards, including a gold medal in Paris in 1900, a gold medal in St. Louis in 1905, a grand prix at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1925. In addition to oil painting, his most important areas of work included designing stained glass and polychromes. He is the author of, among others, a series of 13 stained glass windows for St. Nicholas Cathedral in Freiburg, a set of stained glass windows for Wawel Cathedral and St. Adalbert Church in Poznan. His polychromes are the decoration of the treasury of the Wawel chapel, the church in Plock, the Armenian cathedral in Lviv (polychrome and mosaics). He was involved in applied graphics, cooperated with Warsaw's "Życie" and Cracow's "Chimera", and designed posters. He was an author of texts on art.