UK
Collection

Lviv. Schneider's Cafe

Odo Dobrowolski

  • Lviv. Schneider's Cafe 2
Basic information
ID
Г-I-603
Author
Odo Dobrowolski
Name
Lviv. Schneider's Cafe
Date of creation
1907
Technique
drawing
Material
paper on cardboard watercolor Indian ink
Dimensions (height x width, cm)
19.1 x 14.7
Additionally
Type
graphic art
Genre
cityscape
Information about author
Author
Odo Dobrowolski
Artist's lifetime
1883–1917
Biography
Odo (Otton) Dobrowolski (1883, Chernivtsi – 1917, Kyiv) was a Lviv artist of Polish-German origin. He is mainly known as a graphic artist, in particular a watercolorist, a master of pastels and lithographs. His parents were Jozef Dobrowolski, the Austrian governor of Galicia-Lodomeria, and Eugenia Wittich. Apparently, the artist was named after Otto the Great, the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He graduated from the gymnasium in Lviv. In the mid-1900s, Dobrowolski was in Krakow as a non-degree student of the Academy of Fine Arts. Between 1908 and 1909, thanks to the support of the artist Jan Styka, he was in Paris and then in Munich for a short while. After returning to Lviv between 1909 and 1910, the artist made an oil decorative panel for the confectionery of Gabriela Zapolska, a famous playwright, actress, and a bright representative of the Lviv elite. In 1911 and 1912, he was in Paris again. Then he was in Lviv, where during the Russian occupation he created a series of 10 lithographs, which were very popular. In June 1915, during the retreat of the Russians, the artist went to Kyiv, where he died under uncertain circumstances at the age of 34 in 1917. The artistic heritage of Odo Dobrowolski includes numerous cityscapes, particularly views of Lviv and Paris, as well as portraits, interior sketches, and images of nature. The works are stored in Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery, as well as in the National Museum in Krakow, the National Library in Warsaw, the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, and in private collections.
Object description
This is one of the artist's earliest works that was performed before his trips to Paris. This is the last image of the cafe before it was closed in 1907. This is the foreground composition, which depicts the corner of the former Schneider's building in Akademichna Street, 7 in Lviv. To the right there is an arched window on a rusticated wall; above it there is a balcony. To the left there is a metal fence, behind which one can see the tables under the awning of the cafe. In the color scheme, the artist contrasts the planes performed in black Indian ink against the light watercolor tones, showing bright sunlight on the southern facade of the house. Schneider's House and Cafe is a historic building on Akademichna Street, 7 (Taras Shevchenko Avenue) in Lviv that existed until 1912. It was dismantled for the construction of a new building (the second house of Jonasz Sprecher). Schneider's Cafe was closed in 1907. It was popular among Lviv's artistic elite.
Inscriptions
In the lower right part of the work there is an inscription “Kawiarnia Schneidera/ Odo Dobr 07” written in italics.

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