Signed p.d.: K. Witkowski
On the reverse on the upper loom strip (in ink): Ruth [ ...]terens | age | 10; on left loom strip (in ink): Dudy | age | 10 | 1908; on right loom strip illegible dedication; on bottom loom strip (in pen): MOTHER - HAPPY BIRTHDAY 6/1/72 | "HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU".
Karol Dominik Witkowski (Yazlovets 1860 - Newark, New Jersey 1910) - painter of portraits and genre scenes with child characters. In the United States, where he spent half his life, he is known as Karl Witkowski. He was a native of Yazlovets, Ukraine, and graduated from school in Chortkiv. Conscripted into the Austrian army, he drew portraits of officers, portraying, among others, Prince Wilhelm Württemberg, commander of the XI Corps in Lvov. In 1881 he briefly studied at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow under Jan Matejko. In 1882 he took up studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Then - in 1884 - he went to New York, from where after three years he moved to Paris, where he still studied at the Acádemie Julian, and exhibited his paintings at that time in Paris galleries. In 1889 he returned to the United States and settled in Newark, temporarily moving to nearby Irvington and Vaisburg. He painted widely acclaimed portraits, but his real widespread popularity came with his sentimental yet realistic paintings of children from the streets of Newark(Cleaner, First Cigarette, Gazebo, Soap Bubbles). He showed his paintings several times at exhibitions in New York in 1891-1910, and they also appeared in various galleries and at art auctions. Many of them were published as large reproductions. A larger number of the artist's paintings are in the Newark Museum.
