Description:
Kazimierz Sichulski (1879-1943) graduated from the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts. In 1904 he traveled around Europe, getting acquainted with contemporary artistic trends. In 1905 he visited Huculshchyna, which became an inspiration for his creativity. Traveling through the Carpathian highlands, he willingly portrayed the local highlanders. This resulted, among other things, in three images presented in the Gallery, which are another reflection of the Young Poland fascination with the life of simple people. Rogalinskie portraits of the Old and Young Hucul and the young Huculka were created during Sichulski’s first expedition to Huculshchyna. Exhibited immediately after his return to the Krakow Society of Friends of Fine Arts, they aroused the interest of criticism, but also of the Chairman of the Society, Edward Aleksander Raczyński, who acquired them for his Gallery *

Description of the painting:
The portraits are composed similarly to a photographic frame – figures dressed in traditional Hucul costumes fill almost the entire image field. The background on which they are depicted is indistinct and blurred. The portraits are filled with intense colors that blend together to create a cohesive whole. The artist used pure colors that are combined with subdued elements. The combination of colorful figures with the green background of mountain vegetation emphasizes their origin and unity with the nature in which they live. The contours of the figures are clear, filled with spots of color, which resembles the way of composing stained glass, which also fell within the scope of the artist’s artistic activities. The image field seems to emanate light, emphasizing the figures, which are also subject to light phenomena. The stylistics of the paintings, through the wavy contour, refer to the Art Nouveau that was present at that time.

The portrait of the “Young Hucul” shows a robust man in three quarters. He is dressed in a white traditional shirt, with an ornamental keptar on top. The features on the man’s suntanned face are clearly marked. The eyes are outlined with pink pastel. His gaze is focused on the observer or portraitist, thus entering into a relationship with them. His jet black wavy hair is marked with ultramarine. As in the previous portrait, he has a hat on his head. The background for the figure is a heavily blurred area of vegetation.