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Panorama with St. George's Cathedral

Odo Dobrowolski

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-5175
Author: Odo Dobrowolski
Name: Panorama with St. George's Cathedral
Date of creation: 1910s
Technique: colour autolithography
Material: imprint on paper
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 28.6 x 38.8

Additionally

Type: printmaking
Genre: landscape

Information about author

Author: Odo 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 origin. He is mainly known as a graphic artist, particularly a watercolourist, a master of pastels and lithographs. His parents were Jozef Dobrowolski, the Austrian governor of Galicia-Lodomeria, and Eugenia Wittich. Apparently, the artist was named after Otto the Great, the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He graduated from the gymnasium in Lviv. In the mid-1900s, Dobrowolski was in Krakow as a non-degree student of the Academy of Fine Arts. Between 1908 and 1909, thanks to the support of the artist Jan Styka, he was in Paris and then in Munich for a short while. After returning to Lviv between 1909 and 1910, the artist made an oil decorative panel for the confectionery of Gabriela Zapolska, a famous playwright, actress, and a bright representative of the Lviv elite. In 1911 and 1912, he was in Paris again. Then he was in Lviv, where during the Russian occupation he created a series of 10 lithographs, which were very popular. In June 1915, during the retreat of the Russians, the artist went to Kyiv, where he died under uncertain circumstances at the age of 34 in 1917. The artistic heritage of Odo Dobrowolski includes numerous cityscapes, particularly views of Lviv and Paris, as well as portraits, interior sketches, and images of nature. The works are stored in Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery, as well as in the National Museum in Krakow, the National Library in Warsaw, the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, and private collections.

Object description

One of the lithographs not included in the series of views of Lviv in the winter of 1915. The work was executed earlier, in summer, and is likely one of the artist’s first lithographs. St George's Hill is depicted at dusk from the south-west, from the current site of the new buildings of the Lviv Polytechnic National University. The view reveals the ensemble of St George’s Cathedral: above the chapter house, the cathedral rises against a starry sky, with the bell tower alongside. To the left is a panorama of the northern part of the city, with factory chimneys and the slopes of Castle Hill. In front of St George's Hill stretches a green area, depicted in the late evening as dark, almost black.

Inscriptions

In the lower-left corner, there is the author's signature, "Odo Dobrowolski", written in italics.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery