Zarzecze

Jan Nepomucen Glowacki

Basic information

ID: Ж-1353
Author: Jan Nepomucen Glowacki
Name: Zarzecze
Date of creation: 1832
Country: Austrian Empire
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 60.5 x 84.5

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: landscape
Provenance: the Dzieduszycki collection

Information about author

Author: Jan Nepomucen Glowacki
Artist's lifetime: 1802–1847
Country: Austrian Empire
Biography: Jan Nepomucen Glowacki (1802–1847) was one of the most renowned Polish landscape painters of the Romantic era, often called the "father of Polish landscape painting". He studied at the Krakow School of Fine Arts under Antoni Brodowski and Jozef Peszki and at art academies in Prague, Munich, Rome, and Vienna. From 1828, the artist lived and worked in Krakow. He taught drawing and painting at the Saint Anne's Lyceum. From 1833, he was a professor at the School of Fine Arts. He primarily painted Romantic landscapes featuring views of the Tatra Mountains and Krakow. He created 24 paintings depicting views of the city and its surroundings, which were published as lithographs in 1836. In addition, he painted miniature portraits of women, as well as works on religious and mythological themes. In his portrait works, the artist shows a distinct influence of the Vienna School of Painting. The paintings by Jan Nepomucen Glowacki are preserved in museum collections in Poland and Ukraine.

Object description

The landscape in the painting by Glowacki features all the elements of an ideal (imaginary) Romantic scene: a splendid view of a tranquil, wide river with grazing cattle on its banks; a palace on a high hill resembling an ancient temple, reflected in the water; staffage figures of people strolling through the park at dusk; a clear sky with light clouds and an atmosphere of calm and tranquillity. The painting accurately depicts a palace and park complex built over the Mleczka River in the early 19th century in the village of Zarzecze (Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland). This estate belonged to Countess Magdalena Morska (1762–1847) from the Dzieduszycki family, of the Sas coat of arms. The countess was an educated woman, artist, designer, and patron. Between 1817 and 1819, with the assistance of architect Chrystian Piotr Aigner, Magdalena Morska not only designed all the buildings, garden, and park of the palace complex in the Neoclassical style, inspired by the Temple of the Sibyl in Pulawy but also personally supervised their construction. To adorn her park, the countess annually imported new varieties of ornamental plants from Poland and abroad. After Magdalena's death, the estate was inherited by her nephew, Wladyslaw Dzieduszycki (1825–1899), the founder of the Natural History Museum in Lviv. Since 2008, a museum dedicated to the Dzieduszycki family has been established in the palace and park complex. Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery houses a portrait of Magdalena Morska-Dzieduszycka by Alojzy Reichan, as well as a portfolio of coloured lithographs featuring views of the palace and park complex, published by the countess in 1836. In addition to the illustrations, the album includes advice on construction and gardening.

Inscriptions

In the bottom left corner, there is a scratched artist's signature and date: "JN. Głowacki Cracovie 1832".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

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