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Woman and Boy

Julia Smolkowna

Basic information
ID
С-I-337
Author
Julia Smolkowna
Name
Woman and Boy
Date of creation
1925
Country
Poland
Culture
Contemporary times
Technique
moulding polychrome
Material
plaster
Dimensions (height x width x depth, cm)
38.5 x 40 x 24
Additionally
Type
sculpture 3D
Genre
genre art
Provenance
National Gallery of Lviv (until 1940)
Information about author
Author
Julia Smolkowna
Artist's lifetime
1880–1944
Country
Austro-Hungarian Empire, Poland
Biography
Julia Smolkowna (1880–1944) was a sculptor, member of the Association of Polish Women Artists in Lviv, and granddaughter of the famous Galician politician Franciszek Smolka. She studied at the Lviv School of Art and Industry (1909–1913) and later in Paris (1913–1914). Between 1917 and 1923, she participated in the Association of Polish Women Artists exhibitions in Lviv, where her works were well received. From 1925, she taught sculpture at the Association of Polish Women Artists studio in Lviv at 12 Stefan Batory Street (now Kniazia Romana Street). She died on 28 July 1944 and was buried in the Lychakiv cemetery. The artist is the author of portrait busts, genre compositions, memorial projects, memorial portrait medallions, and bas-reliefs commissioned by A. Zachariewicz and A. Piller and placed on the facades and interiors of some buildings in Lviv. She worked in plaster and bronze. She used a formal system typical of 1900–1918, combining the inspirations of Auguste Rodin, Impressionism, and Secession. In her later works, she used the artistic language of modernised Classicism, "academic Realism," and, less frequently, Art Deco.
Object description
The embodiment of the "realistic-genre" intention in J. Smolkowna's creative work is the narrative scenes, which received favourable reviews from art critics. For example, V. Zhyla wrote in the "Lvivska Gazeta" that "Smolkowna's small figures are very mobile as if they were constantly wrapped in air, surrounded by trembling, vibrating energy". The "perfection of plasticity and movement" of the action groups created by J. Smolkowna was noted by J. Tomicka in her review of the VI Exhibition of the Association of Polish Women Artists in Lviv. Free impressionistic modelling of forms with the play of light on the protrusions and recesses is inherent in the genre scene "Woman and Boy" (1925), which is based on the poetry of everyday life and "reads moments of harmony" in it. Thus, the figures of a woman sitting with a book on her lap, a boy leaning towards her, probably her son, and a cat stroked by the woman's hand are filled with peace. The plastic unity of the group is achieved by the soft melody of the lines, the subtly differentiated rhythm, the "openness" of the forms due to the active impressionistic modelling, the synchronisation of the movements and the focus on the pet of the woman and child. The picture is made even more idyllic by the woman's delicate and graceful head, which recalls classical sculpture. The resemblance of the child's features to the "Portrait of a Boy" (1926) in the Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery collection is striking.
Inscriptions
Signed and dated on the base: "Julia Smolkówna 1925".
Legal regulation
Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

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