Dimensions: 65.2 x 45.5 cm
Signature: signed and inscribed p.d.: Fałat / Bystra
Provenance
Warsaw, private collection
After resigning as rector of the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts in 1910, Julian Fałat settled in the small Beskid village of Bystra, near Bielsko. He knew the place from his earlier stays, which were used to save his health. Not only the therapeutic qualities of Bystra attracted the artist, who was tired of Krakow. Fałat was captured by the landscapes and the local folklore, full of color and dynamism. When an acquaintance of the landowner from Osiek near Oswiecim mentioned the possibility of buying a small villa and a piece of forest in Bystra, Fałat did not hesitate for a moment. The purchase of the house thus became a pretext to end - burdening him due to various conflicts - his work as rector at the Academy in Cracow. In Bystra, near the house, he built for himself an artistic studio, the so-called "Fałat's hermitage," visited by the most prominent artists such as Wojciech Kossak and Jacek Malczewski. Bystra became not only a place of respite but also a source of painting inspiration. The most beautiful winter landscapes with sparkling snow and spring views of shimmering meadows on the mountain slopes came from the brush of Julian Falat just in Bystra.
Among the exceptionally valuable from the collector's point of view are paintings documenting the immediate surroundings of Fałatówka. Among them is the offered work made in watercolor and pastel, depicting the chapel of Jesus Crucified with the dove of the Holy Spirit, adjacent to the villa. The composition, depicting a scene of personal prayer at the foot of the cross, is full of silence and reverie, and the perspective used by Fałat enhances the majesty of the mountainside bathed in green. There is a lot of peace and gratitude in the watercolor in question, as well as delight in the captured moment. For the artist, this home shrine was a special place. This is evidenced by surviving commemorative photographs in which he is immortalized with his family and visiting guests posing against the backdrop of the shrine.
