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Casimir the Great Visiting Esterka

Wladyslaw Luszczkiewicz

Basic information

ID: Ж-37
Author: Wladyslaw Luszczkiewicz
Name: Casimir the Great Visiting Esterka
Date of creation: 1870
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 94.5 x 79.5

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: history painting
Plot: Casimir the Great and Esterka
Provenance: the Lubomirski collection
Exposition: Lozinski Palace

Information about author

Author: Wladyslaw Luszczkiewicz
Artist's lifetime: 1828–1900
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire
Biography: Wladyslaw Luszczkiewicz (September 3, 1828, Krakow – May 23, 1900, Krakow) was a Polish painter, educator, art historian, museum expert, and restorer. He is known as the founder of the Polish school of historical painting. For 44 years of uninterrupted teaching activity, Luschkiewicz educated several generations of Polish artists, including Jan Matejko, Artur Grottger, Jacek Malczewski, Stanislaw Wyspianski, Jozef Mehoffer, Karol Maszkowski, Wojciech Weiss, and many others. He studied at the Krakow School of Fine Arts (teachers – J. N. Glowacki, W. K. Stattler) and the Jagiellonian University (1839–1848). He furthered his artistic education at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and briefly with L. Gallait in Antwerp. From 1850, he worked at the Krakow School of Fine Arts, initially as a drawing teacher and from 1877 as a professor of painting and an associate professor of architectural styles. In 1892, he was appointed the rector of this institution. In 1883, W. Luszczkiewicz became the first director of the National Museum in Krakow. He primarily painted historical works, religious themes, and genre compositions, and less frequently created portraits. In his works, he paid attention to the realistic depiction of the clothing the portrayed characters wore. Long before Jan Matejko, who admired the work of his teacher in his youth, Luszczkiewicz depicted prominent Poles and scenes from Poland's past. The artist's paintings are preserved in museums and private collections in Poland and Ukraine.

Object description

The artist chose the legend of the beautiful Jewish girl Esterka, with whom the Polish King Casimir the Great was in love, as the subject for his painting. The painting depicts the first meeting between Casimir and Esterka, which, according to legend, took place in the town of Kazimierz, located on the Vistula River near Krakow, where a large Jewish community lived at the time. In the foreground of the multi-figure composition, set against a summer mountain landscape, a porch of a brick house is depicted. The house residents look on in surprise at the unexpected guest, Casimir the Great, dressed in hunting attire and holding a horn, as he stands frozen on the first step, captivated by the beauty of the dark-haired girl, Esterka. She, dressed in a long yellow and purple gown, stands among the children who gaze at the stranger with undisguised curiosity. At the house's doorstep, her elderly father is depicted with a grey beard and a black yarmulke on his head. The artist meticulously detailed the small decorative elements of the house and the household items. The legend of the secret love between Casimir the Great and Esterka inspired many artists of the 19th century. In addition to Wladyslaw Luszczkiewicz, the legend was also explored by Aleksander Lesser and Wojciech Gerson.

Inscriptions

In the lower left, there is an illegible inscription.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Casimir the Great Visiting Esterka

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