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Self-Portrait

Zofia Zielinska

Basic information

ID: С-I-1970
Author: Zofia Zielinska
Name: Self-Portrait
Date of creation: 1915–1916
Culture: Contemporary times
Technique: moulding
Material: plaster
Dimensions: 56.5 x 40 x 25 cm (height x width x depth)

Additionally

Type: sculpture 3D
Genre: portraiture
Plot: Self-portrait

Information about author

Author: Zofia Zielinska
Author in the original: Zofia Petzold (Zielińska)
Artist's lifetime: 1894–1944
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire, Poland
Biography: Zofia Petzold (Zielinska) (1894–1944) was a sculptor, the daughter of Emil Petzold, a Lviv scholar and Germanist. She studied sculpture at the Lviv State Industrial School between 1912 and 1916 (according to Yurii Biriuliov, between 1913 and 1916 / Biriuliov Y. Lviv sculpture from Early Classicism to Avant-Garde. Mid-eighteenth – mid-twentieth century. Lviv : Apriori, 2015. P. 349/). During her studies, she made a plaster bust of her father (1912–1913), a self-portrait (c. 1915–1916) and a plaque "Chopin" (all works are in the collection of Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery). She exhibited her plaster plaques and busts at Lviv exhibitions in 1917–1922. She was a member of the Association of Polish Artists in Lviv. In her sculptures made after 1918, she moved towards neoclassical forms.

Object description

"Self-Portrait" (1915–1916) was created by the Lviv sculptor Zofia Petzold at 24 when she was a student at the Lviv State Industrial School. The work is characterised by a combination of academic formal principles, manifested in clear architecture and skilful face modelling, with subtle psychology and impressionistic free-form modelling. The figurative concept of the work is based on the worldview and ideology of feminism, which was established in Eastern Galicia at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the awareness of the woman as a full-fledged subject of social life, thought, will and creativity. Confidence in one's creative abilities is reflected in the straight posture of the head, the high, open forehead, the raised eyebrows, the intelligent, calm gaze that looks into the distance, and the slightly geometric shapes. The sculpture is enhanced by expressive light and shadow effects, unruly thick hair locks, and vigorously modelled clothing.

Portrayed person

The name of the person portrayed: Zofia Zielinska
Lifetime of the person portrayed: 1894–1944

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Self-Portrait

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