Krajobraz Jacobi , Adolf S. (1856 - 1903)

Krajobraz

Description:
“Landscape” is a work of an unknown painter signing himself “A.S.Jacobi”. He may be the same Adolf Jacobi born in 1856 and buried in Warsaw in 1903. It is unknown when this small composition was purchased by Edward Aleksander Raczyński. It is also difficult to say whether it was the desire to support the artist or the fascination with the mood of the view, so reminiscent of the Wielkopolska meadows in the area of Rogalin.

Description of the painting:
On a small, vertical canvas we find a fragment of a landscape immersed in darkness. Its lower part is filled with a marshy terrain crossed by sandy and grassy patches. The slender, rhythmically arranged and silhouette-like dark trees are reflected in the water surface, which are outlined on the horizon line. The background for them is a dense, lighter mass of gray forest visible from afar. It is separated from it by a milky-gray, overcast sky, which in the upper part of the canvas passes into dark, spreading clouds. From behind them, the blue sky emerges. Its edges are illuminated by the light of the sun, which pierces through the thick layer of clouds in the upper right corner. This is not, therefore, a moonlit night, as indicated in the Rogalin Gallery Catalogue, but a cloudy, rainy day with glimpses of the sun. The limited color palette with a predominance of grays and browns is enlivened by patches of green in the foreground. This increases the feeling of mystery, and the shadows that appear can evoke a sense of fear and uncertainty. These luminescent effects make the landscape, full of silence and motionlessness, show a certain metaphysical dimension of nature. On the one hand, a peaceful, spring-summer landscape, and on the other, an untamed and wildness of distorted shapes shrouded in darkness.