Stanisław Ignacy WITKIEWICZ (WITKACY) (1885-1939), "Portrait of a Woman" (1930).

Author: WITKIEWICZ Stanisław Ignacy (WITKACY)
Title: Portrait of a Woman (1930)
Technique: pastel, cardboard
Dimensions in light frame: 63 x 48.5 cm
Dimensions with frame: 75.4 x 60.7 cm
Signed and dated l.d.: "Witkacy | 1930 8 V | (T.C + Jur + Br)"

PROVENANCE:
- private collection
- Totwen family collection

DESCRIPTION OF WORK:
Portrait type C was an exceptional type, intended for Witkacy's friends. The artist did not take payment for images in this type, and usually made them at social gatherings, under the influence of alcohol and other intoxicants. The featured painting shows a woman with strong facial features. The viewer's attention is immediately attracted by the model's squinted, slightly darkened eyes, which are a contrasting element to most of the artist's works, in which the eyes as "mirrors of the soul" were usually wide open. The gentle, ambiguous smile of the portrayed also adds to the mysteriousness of the image. The painting has features characteristic of Witkacy's work, such as the sharp shaping of the folds within the model's shoulders, the "graffiti-like" development of the face and the use of a dynamic, strong line that builds the individual elements of the composition. The fashionable hairstyle of the woman was also masterfully captured, whose shining waves the painter brilliantly emphasized with zigzagging accents of light pastel.

Biography of Witkacy is available on the website of the Cracow Auction House [SEE].