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Two in a Bar

Odo Dobrowolski

Basic information

ID: Г-I-611
Author: Odo Dobrowolski
Name: Two in a Bar
Date of creation: 1908–?
Technique: drawing
Material: cardboard watercolour Indian ink
Dimensions: 39 x 26 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: genre art

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 work is dated according to the period in which the artist explored the theme of the self-portrait with a skull. In this composition, the same skull replaces the face of the main figure; it wears the same broad cap as in the artist’s 1908 self-portrait. Behind the bar stand two figures, drinking beer from steins. The figure on the right is dressed in an elegant light suit and long coat, with a skull for a head, topped by a cap, and holding a cigarette between its teeth. To the left stands the second figure, turned away from the viewer, wearing a long coat with a fur collar; he also has a skull for a head, crowned with a top hat. On the bar shelves are a clock and bottles. The composition is rendered in a contrasting colour palette.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Two in a Bar

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