Józef Szermentowski
Cattle Descending to a Watering-Place, 1876
Gift of Tekla and Pelagiusz Korulski, 1920
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miniaturka

material: oil on canvas

dimensions: 81 × 140 cm

description: Created shortly before the artist’s premature death, the painting is widely regarded as one of his greatest accomplishments. Szermentowski was inspired by the work of Barbizon painters – French landscape painters working in the forests of Fontainebleau. Almost half of the canvas is taken up by billowy clouds. Below, the idyllic scene is dominated by impressive trees. The staffage, or figures of animals painted to a scale adjusted to the size of the landscape, is an inherent part of nature. The summer landscape bathed in sunlight evokes a bright mood, full of the joyful affirmation of life. The painting’s bright colours include a richness of green, brown, yellow, blue and white hues. The subtle painting technique endows the canvas with a refined texture. The composition, as was also typical of French landscape painters, combined work in an atelier with the study of nature and brought a real breakthrough to Szermentowski’s work. It gave his images a mature form, rich in thematic solutions based on the observation of nature.

exposition: The Gallery of 19th Century Polish Art in Sukiennice,
The Cloth Hall, 1, Main Market Square


key: Realism, polish impressionism, beginnings of symbolism >>>

© 2010 National Museum in Krakow
design & concept: creator.pl
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