Oil on canvas, signed p.d. "ST.GAŁEK 9". Inscribed in pencil on the reverse "self-portrait".
Dimensions in frame: 35x35 cm (27x27 cm)
Stanislaw Galek (Mokrzyska 1876 -1961 Zakopane) - Polish painter and sculptor, kilim designer. In 1896 he graduated from the Vocational School of Wood Industry in Zakopane, and later taught drawing there, being an assistant to Edgar Kováts. In 1899 he began his studies at the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts in the studios of Jacek Malczewski and Jan Stanislawski. A year later, he interrupted his studies in Cracow and went to Munich, where he began studying at the Königliche Kunstgewerbeschule. He later studied at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris in the studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme. In 1910 he went to create in Italy and the Crimea. In 1912 he got a job teaching drawing at a vocational school in Kolomyia, from where he returned to Zakopane in 1916 and began teaching again at the School of Wood Industry. Since 1931 he devoted himself only to painting. He was a member of the "Podhale Art" society, and from 1925 belonged to the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts. He first exhibited his works in 1900, and was a regular participant in exhibitions organized by the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Cracow and from 1907 by the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts. He took part in the international exhibition organized in 1910 in Berlin, and in 1929 in the General National Exhibition in Poznan. In 1930 he exhibited in Budapest and Vienna. After 1945, he was a regular participant in exhibitions organized in Zakopane by the Association of Polish Artists. In 1960, in Warsaw's Zachęta Gallery, there was an individual jubilee exhibition showing the full extent of Stanislaw Galek's artistic achievements. He was one of the most outstanding painters depicting the Tatra Mountains, especially the Morskie Oko area. In addition, he sculpted and designed kilim patterns for the Kilim Association in Zakopane. He is buried in the Cemetery of Merit on Pęksowy Brzyzek in Zakopane.
