DOI Artikel:
Kunińska, Magdalena: The Collector (Karol Lanckoroński), the Scholar (Marian Sokołowski) and the Artist (Jacek Malczewski) Three Gazes upon Asia Minor
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73804#0034
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7. Jacek Malczewski, A visit in kafana, drawing, Wawel Castle State Art Collection. Photo: Stanislaw Michta Wawel Castle State Art Collection
Undoubtedly the artists first lens was an interest in the
human figure and genre scenes (sometimes very crowded,
which was unusual for Malczewski's later oeuvre); the sec-
ond (scenes with prayers, watercolours) - was orientalist
painting convention. Interestingly, it is Sokołowski who
makes the distinction between painterly and scientific vi-
sion, suggesting the painters preoccupation with scenes
of everyday life:
In fact, this whole part of the city has a charm for the ar-
tist and painter. Through the wide doors of the houses,
always open wide, the passer-by looks inside. The entire
domestic life shifts before his eyes.50
As the exhibition organised at the end of 2008 and the
beginning of 2009 by the National Museum in Warsaw
showed, the presence of oriental tendencies and motifs
has also had a long history in Polish painting. Their pres-
ence was driven by fascination, and - as Tadeusz Majda
writes in the catalogue - the expeditions undertaken from
the early 19th century onwards were usually aimed at vis-
iting places associated with Greek and Roman culture, but
during these journeys one also learned about Turkish art,
customs and everyday life, and discovered contemporary
50 M. Sokołowski, 'Z podróży na Wschód', p. 95 (as in note 25).
Turkey'.51 An example of this process is, of course, also the
1884 expedition analysed here. It seems that this getting
to know by the way of serious research is evident in the
two groups identified among Malczewski's drawings.
Of particular interest in the context of the present ar-
ticle are works depicting the expeditions participants at
work or participating in the customs and life of the East.
In the first group, the first thing that strikes one's eye is
the virtually mediatised relationship between the Europe-
ans and the objects studied: Malczewski hides himselfbe-
hind an easel (several times, for example Fig. 3), while also
under an umbrella, Lanckoroński takes notes in a sketch-
book [Fig. 3], etc. This compositional solution distances
the content and constitutes the leitmotif of the Oriental-
ist gaze. A very specific work here is the scene of the pur-
chase of carpets [Fig. 5], emphasising in the main axis of
the composition (seller in fez - buyer) the dissimilarity
of the groups of Europeans and Turks. In a similar but
perhaps even stronger way, Oskar Hamdi Bey contrast-
ed 'travellers' and 'travelees', in an analogous scene of the
purchase of carpets [Fig. 6], while separating a European
51 T. Majda, 'Orientalizm w Polsce', in Orientalizm w malarstwie, ry-
sunku i grafice w Polsce w XIX i 1. połowie XX wieku, exh. cat. Na-
tional Museum in Warsaw, Warszawa 2008, p. 19.
7. Jacek Malczewski, A visit in kafana, drawing, Wawel Castle State Art Collection. Photo: Stanislaw Michta Wawel Castle State Art Collection
Undoubtedly the artists first lens was an interest in the
human figure and genre scenes (sometimes very crowded,
which was unusual for Malczewski's later oeuvre); the sec-
ond (scenes with prayers, watercolours) - was orientalist
painting convention. Interestingly, it is Sokołowski who
makes the distinction between painterly and scientific vi-
sion, suggesting the painters preoccupation with scenes
of everyday life:
In fact, this whole part of the city has a charm for the ar-
tist and painter. Through the wide doors of the houses,
always open wide, the passer-by looks inside. The entire
domestic life shifts before his eyes.50
As the exhibition organised at the end of 2008 and the
beginning of 2009 by the National Museum in Warsaw
showed, the presence of oriental tendencies and motifs
has also had a long history in Polish painting. Their pres-
ence was driven by fascination, and - as Tadeusz Majda
writes in the catalogue - the expeditions undertaken from
the early 19th century onwards were usually aimed at vis-
iting places associated with Greek and Roman culture, but
during these journeys one also learned about Turkish art,
customs and everyday life, and discovered contemporary
50 M. Sokołowski, 'Z podróży na Wschód', p. 95 (as in note 25).
Turkey'.51 An example of this process is, of course, also the
1884 expedition analysed here. It seems that this getting
to know by the way of serious research is evident in the
two groups identified among Malczewski's drawings.
Of particular interest in the context of the present ar-
ticle are works depicting the expeditions participants at
work or participating in the customs and life of the East.
In the first group, the first thing that strikes one's eye is
the virtually mediatised relationship between the Europe-
ans and the objects studied: Malczewski hides himselfbe-
hind an easel (several times, for example Fig. 3), while also
under an umbrella, Lanckoroński takes notes in a sketch-
book [Fig. 3], etc. This compositional solution distances
the content and constitutes the leitmotif of the Oriental-
ist gaze. A very specific work here is the scene of the pur-
chase of carpets [Fig. 5], emphasising in the main axis of
the composition (seller in fez - buyer) the dissimilarity
of the groups of Europeans and Turks. In a similar but
perhaps even stronger way, Oskar Hamdi Bey contrast-
ed 'travellers' and 'travelees', in an analogous scene of the
purchase of carpets [Fig. 6], while separating a European
51 T. Majda, 'Orientalizm w Polsce', in Orientalizm w malarstwie, ry-
sunku i grafice w Polsce w XIX i 1. połowie XX wieku, exh. cat. Na-
tional Museum in Warsaw, Warszawa 2008, p. 19.