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Church of Santa Maria in Pontresina

Jakub Glasner

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-43
Author: Jakub Glasner
Name: Church of Santa Maria in Pontresina
Previous attributions: Church of Santa Maria in Pontresina
Date of creation: 1930s
Country: Switzerland
Technique: colour woodcut
Material: paper
Dimensions: 25.2 x 33.2 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: landscape
Plot: Landscape
Provenance: Collection of Jakub Glasner

Information about author

Author: Jakub Glasner
Artist's lifetime: 1879–1942
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire, Poland, the Ukrainian SSR
Biography: Jakub Glasner (Polish: Jakub Glasner; 1879, Rdzawka near Nowy Targ – 1942, Lviv) was a painter and graphic artist of Jewish origin. He was born into a family of innkeepers near Nowy Targ. In the mid-1890s, he moved with his parents to Bielsko (now Bielsko-Biała), where he grew up, received his primary education and developed an interest in painting. He worked as a house painter and graphic artist, but abandoned this occupation and began his art studies in Vienna in 1901–1902.
After two semesters of study, the artist moved to Krakow, where he continued his education at the Academy of Fine Arts. His teachers there included Julian Falat, Teodor Aksentowicz and Jan Stanislawski. In 1905, he travelled to Venice, where he studied under Lucien Simon, and later to Paris, where he attended the studio of Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen. After completing his studies in Vienna, Krakow, Venice and Paris, Glasner returned to Bielsko.
His studio on Piastowska Street became a centre of the city's bohemian life at that time. The artist frequently travelled to Italy and Germany, where he exhibited his works on numerous occasions. He served in the First World War as a soldier in the Austrian army. During this period, he created around 200 drawings, mostly portraits. After the end of the war, he returned to Bielsko. During the interwar period, he also stayed in Lviv, where his studio was located at 11 St Anthony Street (now M. Zankovetska Street).
Following the outbreak of the Second World War and the Nazi occupation in 1939, he fled to Soviet-controlled Lviv. In 1940, using the surname Libidovskyi, he participated in graphic art exhibitions in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Moscow. Glasner died in the Lviv ghetto in 1942.

Object description

The mountain landscape with a medieval church was created by the artist in winter, during his journey through alpine Switzerland. The ancient Romanesque chapel, which later became a Protestant church, is depicted by the author in the centre of the sheet. The church tower, illuminated by the evening sun, is highlighted. Its monumental vertical stands out against the backdrop of mountains and snow-covered hills in shades of cool and warm colours: blue, light blue, purple, and red-green. To the right, the verticals of the tower are compositionally supported by tall, dark green firs. Below right are smaller, bright green conifers.

Inscriptions

At the bottom right below the image is the artist's signature in pencil: "J. Glasner". On left is the artist's inscription in pencil: "Sta Maria in Pontresina/ Orig. Holzschnitt (Eigenhanddruck)".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Church of Santa Maria in Pontresina

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