woodcut, paper, 32 x 22 cm
woodcut, paper, 32 x 22 cm in light passe-partout, 44 x 34 cm outer dimension; signed on the plate p. d.: JM (tied monogram) and by the xylographer l. d.: "J. Holewiński";
Drawings on woodcut plates were personally made by Jan Matejko, engraved by the most prominent wood engravers of the time. The graphics come from the "Album of Jan Matejko" published in 1876 by Samuel Leventhal, who writes in the afterword, among other things, as follows: "The album included the most exquisite paintings of the master, made in recent times; with the exception of reproductions of Rejtan, Ivan the Terrible and the Bard of the Lyricist, reproduced most faithfully by Messrs. [Julian] Maszyński and [Stanisław] Witkiewicz, according to photographs taken from the originals, all other works were drawn on wood by Matejko himself " [...] the execution of each of such woodcuts as. Stefan Batory, Sejm in Lublin , etc. required six months of time each, not counting the time used to draw them on wood [...].
Józef Holewiński (1848, Warsaw - 1917, ibid) - Warsaw wood engraver, artist-painter, illustrator; one of the outstanding Polish xylographers. He studied painting at Wojciech Gerson's Drawing School in Warsaw, while he learned the art of interpretive woodcuts from Jan Styfi (from 1864). Under his tutelage, he began working in the wood engraving department of "Kłosy" in 1865; after the magazine's collapse in 1890, he moved on to "Tygodnik Ilustrowany", where (from 1891) he served as artistic director; he remained in this position until his death in 1917; for a while he ran the illustration department of the weekly "Wanderer"; he also collaborated with the foreign magazines "Moderne Kunst" and "Gazette des Beaux Arts". Holewinski was repeatedly awarded for his woodcuts: in 1873 he received a diploma of recognition at the Universal Exhibition in Vienna; in 1886 a cash prize and in 1888 first prize at the First and Third Exhibition of Works of Ornamental and Reproductive Art in Warsaw; in 1886 first prize at the exhibition of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw for his woodcut Sabala, engraved according to a drawing by Stanislaw Witkiewicz; in 1895 a gold medal in Munich and a grand silver medal at the Exhibition of Printmaking Art in St. Petersburg.
