Back

City Street

Odo Dobrowolski

Basic information

ID: Г-I-606
Author: Odo Dobrowolski
Name: City Street
Date of creation: 1900s
Technique: drawing
Material: paper on cardboard watercolour Indian ink
Dimensions: 19.6 x 13.4 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: cityscape

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

It is likely that one of the streets of Paris is depicted, dating from the artist’s first visit to the city in 1908–1909. A similar monumental Parisian building appears in the watercolour “Winter Boulevard” (1909). The composition is built on strong colour contrasts, dominated by black executed in Indian ink. Black defines the volumes of the buildings, the simplified figures of passers-by, and the shadows of the rainy evening city. Bright accents – red, yellow, and light green – highlight the poster pillars in the left foreground, while on the right the composition is balanced by the structure of a street lamp.

Inscriptions

In the lower right part of the work, there is the author’s signature, “Odo Dobrowolski”, written in italics.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery