Marcin Kitz, A SUNNY DAY IN THE PARK, 1940

80.3 x 70.8 cm - oil on canvas

signed lower right: MKitz 940 [linked initials]
On the reverse (in black paint): MKitz; additionally, on the upper stretcher bar, the date (in red paint): 20/VI 1940;
on the left and right stretcher bars, stamps of the Kraków art supplies store ISKRA & KARMAŃSKI.

Marcin Kitz—painter and printmaker; he began his artistic studies in Lviv under Stanisław Rejchan and Kaczor Ba-towski. Later, in 1919–1920, he studied under Ignacy Pieńkowski at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and subsequently at Ludwika Mehoffer’s Free School of Painting and Drawing in the same city. He also studied in Berlin (reportedly under Max Liebermann), Munich, and Vienna. Traveling extensively throughout Europe, he visited France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. Between 1939 and 1941, he spent some time in Moscow; in 1940, he participated in an exhibition organized in Moscow, Kharkiv, and Kyiv. He was murdered during the German occupation of Lviv. He was a very prolific artist; from 1923 onward, he exhibited extensively—at the TPSP in Lviv and Kraków, at the Towarzystwo Zachęty in Warsaw, and at the Artists’ Association in Poznań. He also held a number of solo exhibitions in Lviv, Kraków, and Warsaw. He painted landscapes, genre scenes, still lifes, and portraits. Critics noted connections to Impressionism in his paintings, as well as inspiration from Liebermann’s work in his earlier pieces.