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Portrait of Mykhailo Rudnytskyi

Yaroslava Muzyka

Basic information

ID: Фмз-Ж-67
Author: Yaroslava Muzyka
Name: Portrait of Mykhailo Rudnytskyi
Date of creation: 1936
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire
Culture: Eastern Europe
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions: 63.5 x 44 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: portraiture
Provenance: Yaroslava Muzyka Fund
Exposition: Lozinski Palace

Information about author

Author: Yaroslava Muzyka
Artist's lifetime: 1894–1973
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ukrainian SSR, now Ukraine
Biography: Yaroslava Muzyka (Stefanovych) was born in Zaliztsi in Ternopil region on January 10, 1894. She died on November 24, 1973, in Lviv. She was an artist of diverse preferences and talent. She turned to graphic art – linocuts, woodcuts, drypoint, monotype; painting – oil, tempera, gouache, encaustic; mosaic and enamel, on glass, grattage on gold or silver foil, batik, embossing on leather, embossing on metal. She studied drawing and painting at Leonard Podhorodecki Free Academy of Fine Arts in Lviv and André Lhote Academy in Paris. In 1928, she trained as an art restorer at the Central State Restoration Workshop of Ihor Grabar in Moscow. She also worked at the National Museum in the restoration workshop. Yaroslava Muzyka was one of the founders of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists (AIUA), a Ukrainian public art organization that operated in Lviv from 1931–1939. In 1937, the artist learned the difficult technique of burning enamel objects by attending Mariia Dolnytska classes in Lviv. In addition, she studied on her own using French and German enamelling manuals. The artist worked in the technique of bulk (scenic, painted) and cloisonne enamel. Her favourite subjects in the enamel works were Hutsul demonology, pagan mythology, beliefs of ancient Slavs, the works by Taras Shevchenko, images of animals, and female portraits.

Object description

Against a red-brown curtain, is the chest-length image of a man with a slightly elongated face, black wedge-shaped beard, moustache and black hair. His gaze is fixed to the side. In his right hand, somewhat exaggeratedly large, he holds a pair of pince-nez glasses. The man is dressed in a grey and black jacket, a white shirt with a sharp collar and a green tie. The elongation of the face and the large hand give the impression of a grotesque image of the portrayed man. The work is created in a pastose manner.

Portrayed person