16.30 x 14.50 cm - crayons, pencil, paper (glued from two pieces)
, p.d. inscription in pencil and ink: ... | LA GARDIENNE
Józef Czapski (Prague 1896 - Maisons-Laffitte 1993) - painter, draughtsman, writer and publicist; initially studied law, later trained at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts in 1918. He interrupted his studies to go to Russia to search for missing Polish officers at the behest of Polish military authorities.
In 1920 he participated in the Polish-Bolshevik war. In 1923-1924 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. In 1924, together with a group of students of Jozef Pankiewicz, forming the so-called Paris Committee, he went to Paris for further studies, where he stayed until 1931. After returning to Poland, he participated in exhibitions of the Capists, including at the Warsaw Institute of Art Propaganda. A participant in the September campaign, a prisoner of the Starobielsk camp, among others; freed from captivity, he joined the Anders Army and in 1941-1942 led the search for officers and soldiers imprisoned and missing in the USSR.
After 1944, he lived permanently in Maisons-Laffitte near Paris. He was one of the founders of the monthly magazine "Culture." As a writer, he published, among others, Oldobiel Memories, On Inhuman Earth and numerous essays on art. He painted landscapes, still lifes, interiors and, less frequently, portraits. In the 1980s and 1990s, the artist's paintings and drawings were exhibited several times in Krakow, Warsaw, and Poznan.
His painting - initially close to the Pankiewicz school, later very individual and expressive - is more widely presented in an album by Joay Pollakówna (Czapski, Warsaw 1993).
