gouache, paper, 70x56 cm
The life of Maria Neugebauer (born 1902 in Rzeszow, died and buried 1967 in Novaya Vileyka, Lithuania) can be divided into 3 periods. The first, "Rzeszow" period covers the childhood and youth of the future painter, from 1902 to 1920. This is the time of receiving education at the People's School and the St. Scholastica Female Faculty School in Rzeszow. This is also the time of the formation of artistic interests, crowned by the decision to go to Cracow to study painting. In 1921, the second chapter of her life begins (the so-called "Cracow" period). She took up studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. From 1926 to 1931, she studied at the Faculty of Painting and Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under Prof. Wł. Jarocki, I. Pieńkowski and T. Pautsch. The diploma of graduation with a very good result bears the date of 28.02.1931. In 1923-1925 she studied at the State School of Art Industry in Cracow, from which she graduated with a very good result. In 1932, M. Neugebauer made the decision of a lifetime to enter a convent of cloistered Dominican nuns in Cracow, where, after completing her novitiate, she took her religious vows on 14.09.1932. Here she took the religious name Imelda. This period lasted until 1938.It was this year that brought great changes in her life. When, in 1938, the Dominican Sisters of Cracow established a branch of their convent in Vilnius Colony near Vilnius (today's name Pavilnis) Maria Imelda Neugebauer decided to go to Lithuania for a new post together with 7 other sisters. At the time, she did not yet imagine that her further fate from 1938 to 1967, that is, for almost 30 years until the end of her life, would be connected with Vilnius and Lithuania. The Dominican sisters lived temporarily in a rented villa and waited for the construction of a monastery, but these plans were not realized due to the outbreak of war. It was in Lithuania that Sister Imelda experienced the horrors of World War II, first the cruel Nazi terror and then totalitarian communism bringing with it an equally ruthless atheization of life in Lithuania under Stalin and Khrushchev. However, she did not break down or give up. She worked assiduously believing in her vocation, both spiritual and artistic. Even when the sisters lost their home in Vilnius Colony in August 1948 and left for Poland, she chose to stay in Lithuania. It was her choice. During the difficult years of the German occupation, she faced the need to earn a living. In order to survive she took various jobs. For three years of the occupation she was an organist at St. Raphael's Church in Vilnius, and in her spare time she learned Hebrew. Another way to survive was to design and produce Christmas cards. Sister Imelda did this during the war and on a larger scale after the war in the 1950s and 1960s. 20th century. She understood this as an attempt to oppose the secularization of life in Soviet Lithuania. The market for the postcards she designed and produced was the sacristies of Vilnius churches and the patrons of her work became the priests of the surrounding parishes, who sent more and more orders for cult paintings, nativity scenes, God's tombs, stained glass designs, Christmas postcards and even feretrons. Her paintings, prints and drawings can be found in various parish churches in Lithuania, such as those in Druskininkai, Pavilnis (Vilnius Colony) and Vilnius. A church in Grodno and a Dominican convent in Krakow should also be added here. Maria Imelda Neugebauer died on March 23, 1967 at the age of 65 and was buried in the cemetery in Novi Vileyka (now a district of Vilnius). Some of her paintings were dispersed during the turmoil of war, but most were saved. Many of her works: prints, drawings and sketches are now kept in the Dominican Sisters' convent in Cracow. An inventory of her artistic achievements was made by Father Robert Świętochowski OP. His article entitled : "Inventory of Imelda Neugebauer OP's painting legacy" appeared in the periodical "Archives, Libraries and Ecclesiastical Museums" in 1975 (T.31:1975) Father Świętochowski OP states in his article that the inventory of drawings, prints, sketches and paintings includes 700 items, half of which are works of religious content. The oil paintings themselves, however, are not numerous. The vast majority, however, are drawings and sketches. The work presented at the auction comes from the early period of Maria Neugebauer's work, the "Cracow" period, when she was still a student.
