Collection

Diptych: Farewell, Welcome

Artur Grottger

Basic information

ID: Ж-1630
Author: Artur Grottger
Name: Diptych: Farewell, Welcome
Date of creation: 1866, 1865
Technique: oil painting
Material: wood oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 52.7 x 41.3

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: narrative art
Provenance: National Museum in Lviv
Exposition: Lozinski Palace

Information about author

Author: Artur Grottger
Artist's lifetime: 1837–1867
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 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and Vienna (1852–1858). He is a leading representative of Polish Romanticism. He is known as a painter, periodical illustrator, graphic artist, and watercolorist. 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 serious illness in Amélie-les-Bains, France, in 1867. He was buried in the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv (field No.95).

Object description

The composition consists of two thematic parts, namely “Farewell” and “Welcome”. The artist depicted himself and his bride in the figures of a young couple. The first (left) part of the work represents a young couple, in particular a girl (Wanda Monne) dressed in a black long dress with a white collar, and a Polish insurgent (Artur Grottger) dressed in traditional Polish folk clothing of the mid-nineteenth century and with a Confederate hat on his head. A cavalry sword is on the left side. The figure of the girl is depicted on the stairs of the house; she is depicted in profile, to the right of the viewer. The insurgent is depicted in profile as well; he is turned to the left of the viewer. The girl attaches a "folk cocarde", a white and red rosette, to the Confederate hat of the insurgent. The elements of an architectural landscape in the form of columns are behind the girl, and behind the man there is an architectural column decorated with an amphora; next to it there is a figure of another insurgent depicted with his back to the spectator, wearing a white kontusz and a red headdress. The second part of the work ("Welcome") represents a young couple (Artur Grottger and Wanda Monne) – the insurgent, who is shown on his left knee and kisses the right hand of a girl dressed in a long white dress and with flowing hair that is decorated with a flower. The figure of the man is shown in the left-hand profile. He is dressed in a long coat; there is a red Confederate hat on the ground near his right knee. A large bush of red roses is depicted in front of the girl. The white one-story building is behind the insurgent.

Inscriptions

In the lower left corner of the work "Welcome" there is the author's abbreviation "AG" and the date of creation of the work.

Portrayed person