Lately in Polish social media suddenly one of the 19th century paintings made a significant appearance: it is “Jewess with Oranges” by Aleksander Gierymski and I decided to write about it here. It is going to be about relation between painting and photography in the 19th century – I have…
Recently, while I have been preparing my radio programme on “Battle of Grunwald” by Jan Matejko (1878, the National Museum in Warsaw) I have came across an interesting information on the painting’s history. That information was given by rather a respectable source, that is a blog of conservators of the…
There is a Facebook page in Polish called The Brief – co znosi psychika grafika; they publish various funny or frustrating dialogues between graphic designers and clients. Some time ago they posted following image: The dialogue translates: [Designer]: what colours do you prefer for your project? [Client]: It doesn’t matter,…
A few years ago I had a pleasure to participate in a British project called National Inventory of Continental European Paintings: I have researched and made catalogue entries for 231 paintings in the collection of York Art Gallery, dating back from 15th century to ca. 1900. Obviously those earliest pictures…
A myth of a glorious imperial past is still vivid among many inhabitants of former Austro-Hungarian Empire and I must admit I am one of them. I very much value the fact that now and then I have a chance to participate in a party where – at certain point…