DOI Artikel:
Danielewicz, Iwona: The Collection of Gabriela Zapolska
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18947#0121
Laurysiewicz, “Nowe kierunki malarskie we Francji” [New trends in painting
in France].1 Laurysiewicz was a young critic who was a close friend of Zapolska,
and she addressed a large portion of her correspondence to him. Two years
later, Przegląd carried large fragments of an article by Albert Aurier, “Le
symbolism en peinture - Paul Gauguin”, reprinted from Mercure de France-,
thus Polish readers encountered reproductions of works by Gauguin and
Maurice Denis for the first time.2 * 4
Zapolska began contributing articles to Kurier Warszawski in 1889, and to
Przegląd at the end of 1890. Initially she showed no great interest in art and
suggested to Wiślicki, Przegląd’s editor, that he entrust exhibition reviews to
Laurysiewicz.1 Encouraged by the editor, however, to attempt to write reviews
of the Paris Salons, Zapolska agreed to undertake the reąuest. Ewa Korzeniewska
believes that Maria Szeliga and her husband Edward Loevy influenced the
writer’s decision.4 Her opinions about Parisian artistic, literary and cultural
life expressed in her journalism and private correspondence, underwent
a major evolution during the several years she lived in Paris. Zapolska’s
initial judgements about modern painting were disdainful and superficial;
for example, in an article dated April 14, 1890 in Kurier Warszawski, she
described her impression from the sixth exhibition of the Societe des Artistes
Independants: “[...] and in the Paris Pavilion, the Independants produced
an awful exhibition of works, for which it is difficult to find a name. These
gentlemen seek to return to the most ancient forms of painting, ignoring shade,
perspective, tones, colour, in short everything that actually enables a painting
to approach naturę. Their sick brains are convmced that every object thrown
into relief in space is composed of a million tiny spots. Thus paintings such as
those by Seurat, Van de Velde and others present monstrous agglomerations
of yellow, red and blue points.”1 Her first accounts from the Paris exhibitions
are colourful and brilhant, but also contain very critical commentaries about
art. The paintings she saw at the official Paris Salons aroused her distaste.
She was irritated by the idealised world of that art with its fictive events and
figures. An adherent of the realistic ideas of Emil Zola, she looked for “truth”
in paintings, in their approach to the world, a reality correspondmg to naturę.
She criticised severely not only the themes of these canvases, but also their
colour and texture. An admirer of realist painting was not in the position to
accept the late Academic art of the Third Republic.
She was one of the first to defend Pankiewicz, whose Paris paintings drew
a huge storm in the Warsaw press. She wrote an article for Przegląd in support
of his painting Flower Market, which had been awarded a silver medal in the
1 Dodatek Miesięczny, the monthly supplement to Przegląd Tygodniowy, 1890.
Przegląd Tygodniowy, 1891; The whole article has been translated into Polish by H. Morawska
and published in: Moderniści o sztuce, ed. by E. Grabska, Warszawa 1971, pp. 263-276.
Listy Gabrieli Zapolskiej, Warszawa 1970, vol. I, p. 120.
4 G. Zapolska, Publicystyka, ed. by J. Czachowska and E. Korzeniewska, I, Wrocław-Warszawa
1959, p. LIX.
Publicystyka, op. cit., II, Wrocław-Warszawa 1959, p. 206.
115
in France].1 Laurysiewicz was a young critic who was a close friend of Zapolska,
and she addressed a large portion of her correspondence to him. Two years
later, Przegląd carried large fragments of an article by Albert Aurier, “Le
symbolism en peinture - Paul Gauguin”, reprinted from Mercure de France-,
thus Polish readers encountered reproductions of works by Gauguin and
Maurice Denis for the first time.2 * 4
Zapolska began contributing articles to Kurier Warszawski in 1889, and to
Przegląd at the end of 1890. Initially she showed no great interest in art and
suggested to Wiślicki, Przegląd’s editor, that he entrust exhibition reviews to
Laurysiewicz.1 Encouraged by the editor, however, to attempt to write reviews
of the Paris Salons, Zapolska agreed to undertake the reąuest. Ewa Korzeniewska
believes that Maria Szeliga and her husband Edward Loevy influenced the
writer’s decision.4 Her opinions about Parisian artistic, literary and cultural
life expressed in her journalism and private correspondence, underwent
a major evolution during the several years she lived in Paris. Zapolska’s
initial judgements about modern painting were disdainful and superficial;
for example, in an article dated April 14, 1890 in Kurier Warszawski, she
described her impression from the sixth exhibition of the Societe des Artistes
Independants: “[...] and in the Paris Pavilion, the Independants produced
an awful exhibition of works, for which it is difficult to find a name. These
gentlemen seek to return to the most ancient forms of painting, ignoring shade,
perspective, tones, colour, in short everything that actually enables a painting
to approach naturę. Their sick brains are convmced that every object thrown
into relief in space is composed of a million tiny spots. Thus paintings such as
those by Seurat, Van de Velde and others present monstrous agglomerations
of yellow, red and blue points.”1 Her first accounts from the Paris exhibitions
are colourful and brilhant, but also contain very critical commentaries about
art. The paintings she saw at the official Paris Salons aroused her distaste.
She was irritated by the idealised world of that art with its fictive events and
figures. An adherent of the realistic ideas of Emil Zola, she looked for “truth”
in paintings, in their approach to the world, a reality correspondmg to naturę.
She criticised severely not only the themes of these canvases, but also their
colour and texture. An admirer of realist painting was not in the position to
accept the late Academic art of the Third Republic.
She was one of the first to defend Pankiewicz, whose Paris paintings drew
a huge storm in the Warsaw press. She wrote an article for Przegląd in support
of his painting Flower Market, which had been awarded a silver medal in the
1 Dodatek Miesięczny, the monthly supplement to Przegląd Tygodniowy, 1890.
Przegląd Tygodniowy, 1891; The whole article has been translated into Polish by H. Morawska
and published in: Moderniści o sztuce, ed. by E. Grabska, Warszawa 1971, pp. 263-276.
Listy Gabrieli Zapolskiej, Warszawa 1970, vol. I, p. 120.
4 G. Zapolska, Publicystyka, ed. by J. Czachowska and E. Korzeniewska, I, Wrocław-Warszawa
1959, p. LIX.
Publicystyka, op. cit., II, Wrocław-Warszawa 1959, p. 206.
115