Wladyslaw Czachorski (Czachórski) – Lady with a book, ca 1886

WŁADYSŁAW CZACHÓRSKI (Ladislas von Czachorski)

(Lublin 1850 – Munich 1911)

LADY WITH A BOOK, CA. 1886

oil, relined canvas, 73,5 x 49 cm
signed lower left: Czachorski

Provenance:
Private collection, United States.

Compare with:
– Władysław Czachórski, Lady, ‘Tygodnik Ilustrowany’, no. 364, 21 December 1889, p. 401;
– Władysław Czachórski, In anticipation, ‘Tygodnik Ilustrowany’ no. 22, 3 June 1911, p. 425.

Wladyslaw Czachórski worked primarily in Munich and the vast majority of his works have found their way into the hands of Western European and American collectors. The presented Lady with a book is one such painting. A twin similar composition, known from reproductions in the „Tygodnik Ilustrowany” entitled Lady or In anticipation, is dated 1886. According to Henryk Piątkowski, Czachórski’s first biographer, the painting entitled Waiting in 1886 was purchased from the artist by the Munich Wimmer Gallery. There are known cases of Czachórski reproducing his compositions. For example there is a story described by Wacław Jaroszyński in Władysław Czachórski’s Life and Affairs based on the artist’s Diary. In 1881 Czachórski painted two paintings for a New York customer, one of them so appealed to Munich art dealer Kaesser that he asked the artist for a replica. The slight differences between our Lady with a book and In waiting, reproduced in the „Tygodnik Ilustrowany”, suggest a similar situation.

Unfortunately, we do not know when exactly the painting arrived in the United States. Given that the artist fulfilled both commissions for galleries and sold his works directly, it is likely that the painting made its way overseas, directly into the hands of a collector, shortly after it was painted. Unfortunately, Czachórski stopped keeping a diary in August 1881, which makes it significantly more difficult to trace the history of paintings painted later.

A clue to the approximate dating of our work is provided by the painting itself. Dr Anna Straszewska, author of The Role of historical costume in the paintings of Wladyslaw Czachorski, points out that it is possible to date the artist’s works on the basis of the dresses appearing on individual canvases. The first creation used by the painter in salon scenes was a white satin dress à la van Dyck. Famous for his exquisite composition Do You Want a Rose? of 1879 (see, Agra-Art auction March 2021). The second, horizontal version of this composition received incredible attention from the audience of the International Art Exhibition held in Munich in July 1879. The admiration with which this canvas was received led the artist to devote himself to creating beautiful boudoir scenes full of splendour and luxury.

In 1885, the first change of dress took place. The costume à la van Dyck was replaced by a costume inspired by paintings of the third quarter of the 17th century. Dr Straszewska describes it as a white satin gown with a bodice ending in a pointed hem and a large shoulder-revealing neckline. Underneath the short buff sleeves, delicate elbow-length shirt sleeves are visible, wrinkled and trimmed with a lace frill. The edge of the neckline, decorated with a brooch in the centre, is also trimmed with lace. The artist observed in seventeenth-century portraits the characteristic cut of the bodice with a seam running through the centre and two seams running diagonally from the tip of the brim towards the shoulders, forming a characteristic triangle at the front. However, as the bra was not stiffened with whalebones, it models the silhouette more softly, in keeping with the 1880s canon of feminine beauty. The skirt, which was arranged in pleats at the sides, was, in keeping with the fashion of the third quarter of the 17th century, decorated at the front with two vertical bands of lace (white rather than metal) and the same band along the hem. Usually, however, when the skirt was decorated with metal lace or haberdashery, the seams on the front of the bodice and on the sleeves were also trimmed with it. The colour of the dress also diverges from 17th-century fashion – white satin with a silvery-grey shade was preferred then, rather than écru. This dress appeared in Czachórski’s works until 1888, when the artist commissioned a more refined version. From then on, the white creation became a complementary costume in elaborate scenes (see: Wedding gift, 1890 – Agra-Art auction, December 2015). According to Dr Straszewska’s research, we can date our canvas to between 1885 and 1888. However, given that a black and white reproduction (see: In anticipation, 1886) of an extremely similar composition dated by Czachórski in 1886 is known, a similar dating of our work should be assumed.

The Lady with a book is an excellent example of the mastery that Czachórski achieved in realist painting. He was able to paint exquisite fabrics, flowers and jewellery with great care and attention to the smallest details. Our beautiful young lady has been seated by the artist in an armchair right by the open window, through which she looks on with longing, having taken a break from her reading for a moment. On the wall behind her we see an extremely decorative floral fabric embroidered in gold thread on a burgundy background and a reflective satin curtain. In addition to the ornate fabrics, the painter placed next to the model, exquisitely carved bronze vase containing generously blooming pink azaleas. Czachórski received his first azaleas from Jozef Brandt’s wife in 1879 and immediately placed them on the mentioned groundbreaking canvas – Do You Want a Rose? From then on, flowers became one of the most important decorative elements, along with rich fabrics, trinkets and jewellery, whose realism the artist painted in a truly masterful way.