Bank of the San River in Torki (K. W. Kielisinski's Album)

Kajetan Kielisiński created numerous etchings and drawings dedicated to folklore, the life of Polish villages and towns, historical monuments, and landscapes. In 1853, the Poznań publisher Jan Konstanty Żupański issued "Kielisiński's Album", gathering the artist's scattered works, most of which had remained unpublished during his lifetime. Two years later, in 1855, Żupański released a supplementary volume to complement the previous edition, which included etchings depicting coins and seals, figures in historical costumes, alongside rural and urban landscapes.
The presented etching belongs to the graphic sheets published within this 1855 supplement.
The sheet depicts a panoramic rectangular composition that combines a landscape view with scenes of everyday peasant labour. A wide expanse of the river contours a steep hill and a gentle sandy bank where village cottages can be discerned among the trees. The space of the cloudy sky is rendered with dense diagonal hatching.
In the foreground, a group of three peasants is tending to their nets. Nearby, a wooden fishing gear is set in the water. Not far away, two women are laundering clothes. The work is distinguished by its detailed execution of staffage figures and ethnographic accuracy in the rendering of tools.

Beneath the image, the artist's inscriptions read: on the left – "K. r. z n. 1835." [Drawn from nature by K. 1835]; and on the right – "rob. aqf. 1838. 8 Marса" [Executed in etching. 8 March 1838].

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery