podobnie oraz szkice dwóch kobiet 1883 - 1884

Henryk Siemiradzki made this sketch of two women and fairies in the late 19th century. It is a preparatory drawing and shows the artist's process of exploring different compositions and figures. The artist, who was born in what is now Ukraine, was the leading Polish academic painter of his time, an era when institutions like the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, Poland, promoted history painting as the highest form of art. Note the classical and mythological figures, such as the reclining nude and winged cupids, that populate this sketch. These reflect the conservative academic tastes that dominated much of European art during this period. What should we make of an artist who painted such old-fashioned subjects? Scholars of art history rely on primary source documents such as letters, exhibition reviews, and institutional records to fully understand the artist and the context in which he was working. We can then see Siemiradzki as one of the last practitioners of a style that was soon to be swept away by the rise of modern art.