Józef Mehoffer, HEAD OF THE MODEL, 1893-1897

22,0 x 26,4cm - oil, canvas signed p.g.: JM

On the upper bar of the painting loom number: MNK ND 10500



Provenance:

- Property of the artist;

- Collection of Dr. Zbigniew Mehoffer, Cracow;

- Deposit of the National Museum in Cracow, owned by Ryszard Mehoffer;

- Private collection, Warsaw.



Image exhibited, reproduced and described:

- Katalog III. wystawy Towarzystwa Artystów Polskich "Sztuka", Kraków 1899, 19 VI - 19 VII, p. 4, il (lithograph according to the painting);

- Samlicki Marcin], Józef Mehoffer. Series: Współczesne malarstwo polskie z. IV., order of J. Czernecki Bookstore in Wieliczka, [ca. 1912], Printed by W.L. Anczyc and Company, Cracow, il. p. nlb;

- Interior of the apartment of the painter Jozef Mehoffer in Cracow. Fragment of the interior, 1938, photograph, National Digital Archive, Ref. 1-K-4285-8;

- Helena Blum, Zofia Tobiaszowa, Zofia Kucielska, Józef Mehoffer. Catalog of a group exhibition, XI - XII 1964, National Museum in Cracow, Cracow 1964, p. 66, no. 19;

- Józef Mehoffer. Opus Magnum, National Museum in Kraków 2000, scholarly editor Jerzy Żmudziński, p. 21 ( il.), p. 69;

- Józef Mehoffer. Un peintre symboliste polonais, Musée d'Orsay, 16 VI - 12 IX 2004, Paris, p. 14, il. 3;

- M. Smolińska-Byczuk, Young Mehoffer, Cracow 2004, pp. 102-103, 274, ill. 57;

- Young Poland. Words. Images. Spaces. In Tribute to Stanisław Wyspiański, 9 October - 31 December 2007, Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature, Warsaw 2007, pp. 178, 248, il. no. 53;

- Luba Ristujczina, Jozef Mehoffer. Genius of Polish Art Nouveau, published by SBM Renata Gmitrzak, Warsaw 2021, p. 75, il.



Emanating a fin de siecle mood, the girl's head probably belonged to the works closest to the artist, hence for the next two generations it was in the family collection. In the Mehoffer home, the painting framed in an openwork, gilded frame hung in the living room, exquisitely displayed against a background of decorative fabric.



According to Prof. Marta Smolińska-Byczuk, Jadwiga Puciata-Pawłowska dates the painting to 1896-97, while Anna Zeńczak cautiously narrows the dating to 1896. The author of the Young Mehoffer monograph points to 1893 as the time the work was created. What's more, Smolińska-Byczuk also points to analogies with works by the young artist created at the time: Mehoffer's treatment of the portrait's subject is close to Susanne Bru's image and the "de-painting" known from the self-portrait dated April 17, 1893 (Smolińska-Byczuk, p. 102).



Undoubtedly presenting such a high class early work of the artist from the Paris period, having an excellent provenance and rich literature, it is a collector's rarity.



Jozef Mehoffer (Ropczyce 1869-Wadowice 1946) - painter, graphic artist, stage designer and educator; next to Stanislaw Wyspianski, he was the most outstanding Polish creator of stained glass and polychromy. A student of Jan Matejko and the Paris academies - Ecolé des Beaux Arts and Accadémie Colarossi - his creative path began in 1889-1891 with work on the polychrome of St. Mary's Church in Cracow (under Matejko's direction). In 1895, he was awarded first prize in an international competition for stained glass windows for the collegiate church in Fribourg, Switzerland (their realization lasted until 1934). In the following years, he received various other commissions for stained glass and polychromes, including for Wawel Cathedral and Plock, the Armenian Cathedral in Lviv, churches in Opava, Onnes in Switzerland, Jutrosin, Włocławek or Przemyśl (not all completed). He was an outstanding representative of Art Nouveau. He created decoratively treated portraits, including self-portraits and portraits of his wife, as well as paintings with genre overtones, which in 1895-1917 gained the meaning of symbolic compositions. He also painted landscapes combining Art Nouveau decorativeness with the achievements of Impressionism. With masterful mastery of various techniques - oil, tempera, watercolor and gouache - he also worked in printmaking. The last major exhibition of the artist's works, entitled Opus magnum, was held in 2000 at the National Museum in Cracow.