"Self-Portrait in a White Dress," Jacek Malczewski, 1914.

Polish painter Malczewski (1854-1929) was technically a Symbolist painter, but he was also one of the central figures of the Young Poland movement, a patriotic modernist movement in art, literature, and music that rejected older forms and sought to create a new, modern identity for the country's aesthetic character.

The son of a noted Polish patriot and activist, he was educated by noted novelist Adolf Dygasiński and learned art under one of the best art teachers in Poland, Leon Piccard.

He did many self-portraits, but why he did this one, and what he meant by it, are unknown. He wears a woman's blouse with a tightly cinched waist and a flamboyant beret. Some take a wink-wink-nudge-nudge attitude to this, but he was a married man with a brood of children. Given that he had aesthetic leanings, with an art-for-art's-sake outlook, it's likely he just thought it was an interesting outfit. Perhaps it's something of a joke; while in female clothing, his pose is more associated with old paintings of knights on horseback.

From the National Museum in Krakow.

#Art #JacekMalczewski #SymbolistArt #YoungPoland #SelfPortrait #PortraitMonday

"At Christmas," Wojciech Weiss, before 1912.

Polish painter Weiss (1875-1950) was a prominent figure of the Young Poland movement,

The Young Poland movement was a rejection of the earlier Positivist movement, which in turn was a rejection of the Polish Romantic movement. The Polish Romantics wanted a dashing, heroic taking of independence by force. When that failed, the Positivists aimed for an incremental, gradual attempt at independence, & promoted a logic-and-reason-over-emotion approach. Young Poland, which lasted from 1890 to around WWI, brought back the Romantic ideals but also mixed them, artistically, with Impressionism, Expressionism, & even the Victorian Decadents, who viewed life very cynically.

Weiss later became a member of the Vienna Secession & was a prominent Art Nouveau designer; when Communism took over in Poland, he became a Socialist Realist, because he pretty much had to.

Whatever school this was, we have a boy sitting in the midst of colorful Christmas clutter....& he looks horribly bored and/or tired. Or maybe sulky. The style is Symbolist, or maybe Expressionist, but the depiction of boredom/fatigue/sulking in the midst of Christmas displays a touch of Decadent cynicism.

From the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.

#Art #WojciechWeiss #YoungPoland #ChristmasArt