Dimensions: 29 x 23.7 cm
Signed, dated and inscribed underneath: 'H Siemiradzki | 1880 | Roma'.
Provenance
collection of pharmacist, Eugeniusz Wolski (1898-1974), Warsaw
collection of the heirs of Eugeniusz Wolski, Poland-Canada
Biography
Henryk Siemiradzki - an outstanding painter-academician - was educated at the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts. During his studies he was decorated with medals several times. In 1870 he went to Munich and for a year continued his artistic studies at the academy there under Karl Piloty. Since 1872, he lived permanently in Rome. Honored with membership in many European academies, repeatedly awarded medals at exhibitions, decorated with state orders (including the French Legion of Honor and the Italian order Corona d'Italia), Siemiradzki enjoyed great recognition and fame. He maintained constant and lively contacts with the country - he sent paintings to exhibitions, and in 1879 donated his painting Candlesticks of Christianity to Krakow, giving rise to the collection of the National Museum. He painted curtains for theaters in Krakow (1896) and Lviv (1900; the artist's gift to the city). He sought themes for his paintings in antiquity, in the history, life and myths of ancient Greece and Rome.
