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Menaszer's Cafe

Odo Dobrowolski

Basic information

ID: Г-I-1023
Author: Odo Dobrowolski
Name: Menaszer's Cafe
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire
Technique: drawing
Material: watercolour Indian ink
Dimensions: 36.5 cm (width)

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: landscape
Plot: City landscape
Provenance: Accepted for permanent storage from the commission shop of Lviv Miskpromtorh on 21 March 1981.

Information about author

Author: Odo Dobrowolski
Author in the original: Odo (Otton) Dobrowolski
Artist's lifetime: 1883–1917
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire
Biography: Odo (Otton) Dobrowolski (1883, Chernivtsi – 1917, Kyiv) was a Lviv artist of Polish-German descent, known primarily as a graphic artist and master of lithography, as well as for his refined works in watercolour and pastel.
He was born into the family of Józef Dobrowolski, an official at the Austrian Governorship of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and Eugenia Wittich. The artist was likely named after Otto the Great, the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. After graduating from a gymnasium in Lviv, in the mid-1900s he studied in Krakow as a non-matriculated student at the Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1908–1909, with the support of the painter Jan Styka, Dobrowolski lived in Paris before spending a brief period in Munich. Upon returning to Lviv, in 1909–1910, he painted a decorative oil panel for the confectionery of Gabriela Zapolska – a renowned playwright, actress, and one of the most prominent figures of the city's high society of the time. In 1911–1912, Odo worked in Paris once again. Following his return to Lviv, during the russian occupation of the city in the First World War, he created a series of ten lithographs that gained wide acclaim.
In June 1915, he left for Kyiv alongside the retreating russian troops, where the 34-year-old artist died in 1917 under unexplained circumstances.
The artist's oeuvre encompasses numerous cityscapes featuring views of Lviv and Paris, as well as portraits, interior sketches, and life studies. His works are held in Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery, the National Museum in Krakow, the National Library and the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, as well as in private collections.

Object description

The drawing depicts an urban landscape featuring a tram crossing the street. On the right, in the background, stands a four-storey corner building with a domed roof, which dominates the composition. In front of it is a horse-drawn cart. The building is situated at the junction of Pekarska Street and Bernardynska Square (now Soborna Square) in the centre of Lviv. This is likely the very building where Menaszer's cafe, mentioned in the painting's title, was located. In Lviv's address books, it is listed under the name "Metropol". Before the First World War, this building was demolished, and a new Art Nouveau building was erected in its place. The other buildings on the square, depicted in the drawing, have survived to this day. In the street perspective in the background, a fragment of High Castle Hill can be seen. In the foreground on the left stands a street lamp, its vertical line standing out clearly against the backdrop of the green tree crowns.

Inscriptions

Signed and dated bottom right; inscribed bottom left with the title: "Kawiarnia Menaszera".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Menaszer's Cafe

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