A picture of a world that is passing away

Stanislawski’s landscapes, characterized by their small format and great beauty, are among the most outstanding art achievements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For ten years the artist was a professor in charge of the landscape class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. His students were the first to go outdoors with their easels. He trained more than 60 painters, most of whom devoted themselves to landscape painting. Jan Stanislawski was also a colorful and important figure in the artistic and social life of Young Poland’s Krakow. He founded the Society of Polish Artists “Sztuka”, bringing together the most prominent Polish artists; he collaborated with the literary weekly “Życie”, attended theater premieres, as well as at Jama Michalika, where he became an admirer of the Zielony Balonik (Green Balloon) Cabaret.

He came into contact with the art of the Far East during his stay in Paris (1885-1895). His fascination with the Far East was also fostered by the atmosphere of Krakow at the end of the century, infatuated with Japan largely thanks to Feliks Jasieński, who collected Japanese art.

The term ukiyo-e, or picture of the world as it passes away, refers to a genre that arose in Japanese art in the 17th century. Illustrations of distant journeys and pilgrimages appeared then. In the 19th and 20th centuries, this trend was represented by Katsushiki Hokusaia and Utagawa Hiroshige.

Stanislawski, like the Japanese masters, in his painting sought to simplify and synthesize objects in order to reach as fully as possible the so-called essence of things, the essence of the spirit. He used different points of view in the composition, such as the so-called baring – seeing through tree trunks, branches or grasses. The landscapes of the Stanislawski school-refined but filled with depth, juxtaposed with Japanese woodcuts by Utagawa Hiroshige, among others-are a veritable feast for admirers of artful landscape painting as well as lovers of Japanese woodcuts.