Józef Mehoffer, PORTRET KOBIETY W SUKNI W KWIATY, 1942

75,2 x 51,7cm - watercolor, pencil, paper

sign. p.g.: Józef Mehoffer | 1942



The ornamental nature of the fabrics, the precision of the details and the subtle modeling - testify to the artist's lasting fascination with ornament and the symbolic meaning of colors. Color in Mehoffer's work is not just a means of description - it is a tool of psychological and spiritual expression, notes Maria Poprzęcka (M. Poprzęcka, Mehoffer, Wyd. Artystyczne i Filmowe, Warsaw 1994, p. 84).

Józef Mehoffer (Ropczyce 1869-Wadowice 1946) - painter, graphic artist, stage designer and educator; next to Stanisław Wyspiański, he was the most outstanding Polish creator of stained glass and polychromy. A student of Jan Matejko and the Paris universities - Ecolé des Beaux Arts and Accadémie Colarossi - he began his creative path in 1889-1891 with work on the polychrome of St. Mary's Church in Cracow (under Matejko's direction). In 1895, he was awarded first prize at an international competition for stained glass windows for the collegiate church in Fribourg, Switzerland (their realization lasted until 1934). In the following years, he received various other commissions for stained glass and polychromes, including for Wawel Cathedral and Plock, the Armenian Cathedral in Lviv, churches in Opava, Onnes in Switzerland, Jutrosin, Włocławek or Przemyśl (not all completed). He was an outstanding representative of Art Nouveau. He created decoratively treated portraits, including self-portraits and portraits of his wife, as well as paintings with genre overtones, which in 1895-1917 gained the meaning of symbolic compositions. He also painted landscapes combining Art Nouveau decorativeness with the achievements of Impressionism. With masterful mastery of various techniques - oil, tempera, watercolor and gouache - he also worked in printmaking. The last major exhibition of the artist's works, entitled Opus magnum, was held in 2000 at the National Museum in Cracow.