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Boy from Borshchovychi

Artur Grottger

Basic information

ID: Ж-911
Author: Artur Grottger
Name: Boy from Borshchovychi
Date of creation: 1860
Technique: oil painting
Material: cardboard oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 33 x 26

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: portraiture
Plot: Portrait
Provenance: Collection of Wiktor Baworowski
Exposition: Lozinski Palace

Information about author

Author: Artur Grottger
Artist's lifetime: 1837–1867
Country: Austrian Empire
Biography: Artur Grottger was born in 1837 in the village of Otynevychi in the Lviv region (former Ottyniowice, Eastern Galicia). He studied at the Lviv School of Painting of Jan Maszkowski and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and Vienna (1852–1858). Artur Grottger is a leading representative of Polish Romanticism, as well as a painter, periodical illustrator, graphic artist, and watercolourist. He is the author of six patriotic art cycles regarding the January Uprising against the Russian occupation of Poland of 1863, portraits, and local history materials. Artur Grottger died after a severe illness in Amélie-les-Bains, France, in 1867. He was buried in the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv (field No.95).

Object description

On a greenish background is a full-face and bust-length figure of a peasant boy. The portrayed boy has smooth blond hair that frames his face with curious and slightly frightened eyes. A boy is dressed in an ochre svyta (long outer garment) and a white shirt with a tied blue ribbon. In the village of Borshchovychi, Artur Grottger painted local Ukrainian children, warmly conveying the peculiarities of the boys' appearances. The author admired their directness of immature characters, their poetry, spiritual beauty, and sincerity of emotions.

Inscriptions

At the bottom in the middle is the inscription: "Barszczowice 11/10 860". On the right is the author's monogram: "A.G.".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery