Description:
Of the two works by Merkel purchased by Raczyński in 1906 from the Kraków TPSP, a portrait of a woman painted by the artist at the end of his studies at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts under J. Mehoffer has been preserved to this day. Its linear, Secessionist form shows a great dependence on the art of Young Poland, in particular the work of Mehoffer and Wyspiański. The uniform colour scheme, based on a range of greys emphasizing the importance of the line and creating a specific atmosphere, will be repeated in later works created in the circle of the École de Paris with which the artist was associated during his long stays in Paris and Concernau. Merkel, a friend of E. Zak and other Polish artists, despite settling in Vienna and after 1938 again in Paris, did not lose contact with his homeland, exhibiting in salons in Kraków, Warsaw, Łódź and Lviv. He was also one of the founders of the Society of Polish Artists and a member of the Vienna “Secession” and “Hagenbund”.