Raphael Malczewski, LAURENTINE MOUNTAINS IN THE LAKE OF MONTFORT

37.0 x 52.7cm - watercolor, paper pasted on cardboard
Signed (in ink) l.d.: Rafał Malczewski
On the reverse a sticker (print, marker): DOMINION GALLERY | Artist RAFAL MALCZEWSKI | Title.
"LAURENTIANS NEAR MONTFORT" | 1438 14 1/4 | Width 20 3/4 | Number F 830 | Price; below the stamp
(repeated on the lower frame bar): DOMINION GALLERY | 1438 Sherbrooke Street West | MONTREAL. P.
QUE.; below a sheet with a biographical note of the artist in French.

Rafal Malczewski arrived in Canada in late 1942, having had a long wartime wandering through Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Brazil and the USA. He initially stayed in Ottawa, and in January 1943 held the first Canadian exhibition of his paintings there. After another exhibition in Montreal - in March 1943 - the management of the Canadian National Railway offered him the opportunity to travel freely, paint landscapes along their entire line, and purchase the resulting works. These trips by the artist across Canada lasted for four years. He visited almost all the provinces, and by 1946 had already settled permanently in Montreal. From there, he traveled to the Laurentian Mountains for the summer and fall, where he painted the local landscapes.

♣ An additional fee will be added to the Purchase Price resulting from the right of the artist and his heirs to receive remuneration in accordance with the Act of February 4, 1994 - on Copyright and Related Rights (droit de suite).

Rafał Malczewski (Krakow 1892 - Montreal 1965) studied agronomy, philosophy and architecture in Vienna; he also attended the Academy of Fine Arts there, but owed his artistic education primarily to his father, Jacek Malczewski. From 1917 to 1939 he lived permanently in Zakopane; he was a passionate mountaineer. In 1930 he left for a six-month stay in France. In December 1939 he broke through Slovakia and Hungary to France, from where he then left for Brazil and later the United States. In 1942 he arrived in Montreal, where he remained permanently. Beginning in 1919 he exhibited a lot; from 1934 also as a member of the "Rhythm" grouping. He painted mainly landscapes - from the Tatra Mountains, Podhale, views from small towns and factory Silesia, later also from Brazil and Canada. In his paintings - consciously primitive, often maintained in a poetic and fairy-tale mood - he is close to the art of naive realism. Malczewski was also a literary man, author of articles on art, columns, essays and memoirs of the Tatra and Zakopane Mountains, including "Narcotic of the Mountains," "The Mountains Call" and "Navel of the World," a book already written in Canada.