![STANISLAW IGNACY WITKIEWICZ, 1917 - Portrait of Wanda Maria Skarżyńska née Romm, 6 Jan 1917 / astel, brown paper stuck on cardboard, 59.0 × 43.0 cm [Rus: Портрет Ванды Марии Скаржинской, урождённой Ромм, 6 января 1917 г] | by Crystal.Rain](http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48950021737_8cdd3db680.jpg)
STANISLAW IGNACY WITKIEWICZ, 1917 - Portrait of Wanda Maria Skarżyńska née Romm, 6 Jan 1917 / astel, brown paper stuck on cardboard, 59.0 × 43.0 cm [Rus: Портрет Ванды Марии Скаржинской, урождённой Ромм, 6 января 1917 г]
☆Private collection.
Sopocki Dom Aukcyjny Sopot, Works on Paper: Fine Art Auction, February 2019.
Sources: www.sda.pl/auction/object/stanislaw-ignacy-witkiewicz-por...
pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Ignacy_Witkiewicz
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885 – 1939), commonly known as Witkacy, was a Polish writer, painter, philosopher, theorist, playwright, novelist, and photographer active before World War I and during the interwar period.
Witkacy portrayed Skarżyńska during his stay in St. Petersburg, where he came in 1914 to her father's family. Then he joined the tsarist army and was sent to the exclusive Pawłowski Leibgward Regiment, which was sent to the front in 1915. After a famous bloody fight in 1916 with the Austrian army at Vitonież, he was wounded and evacuated to St. Petersburg. "(...) He did not return to the front, but" for bravery and courage "he was awarded the Order of St. Anna IV degree and promoted to the rank of lieutenant. He left the tsarist army in mid-November 1917 and made himself available to the Supreme Polish Military Committee. In the meantime, he witnessed both revolutions that broke out in Russia in 1917 - February and October - but he was mainly on sick leave and vacation. Probably thanks to this, he managed not only to experience this turmoil of history, but even to continue artistic creativity interrupted by participation in hostilities".
"In St. Petersburg, as early as 1915, he began to make portraits using colorful pastels. It was also a gainful activity, thanks to which he obtained quite a decent income. He portrayed both his army colleagues and St. Petersburg's "upper realms", including the rather numerous Polish diaspora there, to which the Skarżyński family belonged. (...) Wanda Skarżyńska (1892-1967) was the actress, wife of the actor and director, Tadeusz Skarżyński (1886-1944). They both stayed in St. Petersburg in 1915-1917, where Tadeusz performed at the Ludowy Theater. Then they went to Finland. In 1910-1911 Wanda played at the Municipal Theater in Krakow, and in 1911-1914 she performed in Vilnius and St. Petersburg, where after the outbreak of the war she probably continued her acting career. Due to Witkacy's close relationship with the Polish Theater in St. Petersburg (the later husband of his aunt, Jadwiga Jagminówna, businessman Leon Reynel supported the theater financially), the artist knew these circles well".
"After the war, the Skarżyńscy returned to Poland, played in theaters in Warsaw, Minsk, Lithuania, Grodno, Bydgoszcz, Płock and in many other Polish cities. In the years 1927-1929 Tadeusz was even the director of the City Theater in Płock. During World War II he was active in secret military organizations, in 1944 he was arrested by the Gestapo and died in a prison in Radom".
"In 1923, it was written about Wanda" that she has the actor's technique at her disposal and has a note of sincere lyricism in her voice, and has revealed strength and temperament in dramatic scenes". During the war she was a prisoner of the women's camp in Ravensbrück, after 1945 she worked in the administration of trade unions. Unfortunately, most of Witkacy's works from the Petersburg era are considered missing, so the disclosure of each of them, previously unknown, is an important event shedding additional light on this period of the artist's life and work (...) ".
The quoted fragments come from the expert opinion of Dr. Anna Żakiewicz from 2018.
STANISLAW IGNACY WITKIEWICZ, 1917 - Portrait of Wanda Maria Skarżyńska née Romm, 6 Jan 1917 / astel, brown paper stuck on cardboard, 59.0 × 43.0 cm [Rus: Портрет Ванды Марии Скаржинской, урождённой Ромм, 6 января 1917 г]
☆Private collection.
Sopocki Dom Aukcyjny Sopot, Works on Paper: Fine Art Auction, February 2019.
Sources: www.sda.pl/auction/object/stanislaw-ignacy-witkiewicz-por...
pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Ignacy_Witkiewicz
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885 – 1939), commonly known as Witkacy, was a Polish writer, painter, philosopher, theorist, playwright, novelist, and photographer active before World War I and during the interwar period.
Witkacy portrayed Skarżyńska during his stay in St. Petersburg, where he came in 1914 to her father's family. Then he joined the tsarist army and was sent to the exclusive Pawłowski Leibgward Regiment, which was sent to the front in 1915. After a famous bloody fight in 1916 with the Austrian army at Vitonież, he was wounded and evacuated to St. Petersburg. "(...) He did not return to the front, but" for bravery and courage "he was awarded the Order of St. Anna IV degree and promoted to the rank of lieutenant. He left the tsarist army in mid-November 1917 and made himself available to the Supreme Polish Military Committee. In the meantime, he witnessed both revolutions that broke out in Russia in 1917 - February and October - but he was mainly on sick leave and vacation. Probably thanks to this, he managed not only to experience this turmoil of history, but even to continue artistic creativity interrupted by participation in hostilities".
"In St. Petersburg, as early as 1915, he began to make portraits using colorful pastels. It was also a gainful activity, thanks to which he obtained quite a decent income. He portrayed both his army colleagues and St. Petersburg's "upper realms", including the rather numerous Polish diaspora there, to which the Skarżyński family belonged. (...) Wanda Skarżyńska (1892-1967) was the actress, wife of the actor and director, Tadeusz Skarżyński (1886-1944). They both stayed in St. Petersburg in 1915-1917, where Tadeusz performed at the Ludowy Theater. Then they went to Finland. In 1910-1911 Wanda played at the Municipal Theater in Krakow, and in 1911-1914 she performed in Vilnius and St. Petersburg, where after the outbreak of the war she probably continued her acting career. Due to Witkacy's close relationship with the Polish Theater in St. Petersburg (the later husband of his aunt, Jadwiga Jagminówna, businessman Leon Reynel supported the theater financially), the artist knew these circles well".
"After the war, the Skarżyńscy returned to Poland, played in theaters in Warsaw, Minsk, Lithuania, Grodno, Bydgoszcz, Płock and in many other Polish cities. In the years 1927-1929 Tadeusz was even the director of the City Theater in Płock. During World War II he was active in secret military organizations, in 1944 he was arrested by the Gestapo and died in a prison in Radom".
"In 1923, it was written about Wanda" that she has the actor's technique at her disposal and has a note of sincere lyricism in her voice, and has revealed strength and temperament in dramatic scenes". During the war she was a prisoner of the women's camp in Ravensbrück, after 1945 she worked in the administration of trade unions. Unfortunately, most of Witkacy's works from the Petersburg era are considered missing, so the disclosure of each of them, previously unknown, is an important event shedding additional light on this period of the artist's life and work (...) ".
The quoted fragments come from the expert opinion of Dr. Anna Żakiewicz from 2018.