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Sketch for A. Mickiewicz's work "The Ambush. A Ukrainian Ballad"

Maurycy Gottlieb

Basic information

ID: Ж-388
Author: Maurycy Gottlieb
Name: Sketch for A. Mickiewicz's work "The Ambush. A Ukrainian Ballad"
Date of creation: 1875
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 24 x 18

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: narrative art
Provenance: Collection of Lviv City Gallery

Information about author

Author: Maurycy Gottlieb
Artist's lifetime: 1856–1879
Country: Austrian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire
Biography: Maurycy Gottlieb (1856, Drohobych – 1879, Krakow) was a Polish painter of Jewish origin. He studied at the art academies of Vienna and Krakow and was a pupil of Jan Matejko. He painted historical and religious compositions based on the Talmud and the Bible and was known as a portraitist.

Object description

Admiring Polish literature and the historical paintings by Jan Matejko, Gottlieb created a series of compositions on Polish themes. One is a sketch for Adam Mickiewicz's "The Ambush. A Ukrainian Ballad" (1828). This is one of the first Polish themes in the artist's work. The young artist illustrated the following poetic lines: "They took up arms, stealthily advancing / They went to where the arbour is. / On the grassy seat, something white gleams in the shade – / It is the beloved of the voivode. / Eyes, wondrous in beauty, are covered by a braid, / Her breasts are concealed by white robes, / She pushes away the youth who sighs foolishly / And washes her knees with his tears". Written in 1875 in Vienna, the composition is built on the contrast between the girl's white dress and the dark background surrounding her.

Inscriptions

In the lower right, there is the artist's signature: "M.G.".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Sketch for A. Mickiewicz's work "The Ambush. A Ukrainian Ballad"

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