Stanislaw Ignacy WITKIEWICZ - WITKACY (1885-1939), Portrait of Jan Leszczynski, 1931

Pastel, brown paper; 67 x 48 (in light passe-partout);
signed, dated and inscribed p. d.: 14/IV / Witk[a]cy 1931 / n.p. (T.E) NP44, inscribed l. g.: R.B.P.
The painting has the opinion of Dr. Anna Żakiewicz.

Provenance:
- Collection of Jan Leszczynski,
- D. Auction. A. Ostoya (16.12.2001), item 12,
- Private collection, Poland.

Exhibited and included in the literature:
- Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Visual works. Exhibition catalog, National Museum, Cracow 1966, item 119.
- Les portraits dans l'ouvre de Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Galerie Seine-Visconti, Paris 1978, cat. no. 48.
- Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz 1885-1939. catalog of paintings, ed. I. Jakimowicz with the cooperation of A. Żakiewicz, National Museum
in Warsaw, Warsaw 1990, item I 1427 (not exhibited).

"With Jan Leszczynski, a philosopher and professor at Jagiellonian University, Witkacy was connected not only by philosophical disputes, but also by adoration for the professor's beautiful wife, Janina, née Turowski. Between 1929 and 1938, the artist created more than 100 portraits of the two of them, each of which is an extraordinary work.
In addition, the Leszczynskis had portraits of other people made by Witkacy, as well as quite a few of his small drawings - so it was quite a substantial collection forming for many years perhaps the largest and most valuable collection of the artist's works, now dispersed. The portrait, dated April 14, 1931, depicts the professor
in a slightly perky manner - with large green eyes, full red lips, a brick-red blush on his cheeks and a fancy curl on the side. The portrait belongs to type E allowing, according to the Portrait Company Regulations, S. I. Witkiewicz "any psychological interpretation,
according to the intuition of the company." In practice, Witkacy portrayed in this convention mainly women, and those he liked (of classical beauty) or slightly effeminate men. The artist, moreover, was fascinated by the problem of hermaphroditism, often looking for male characteristics in women and female
in men. In 1934, he summed it up in the drama "The Shoemakers" with the famous phrase "men become babied, and women become men."
The annotation next to the signature "NP44" indicates that at the time the portrait was drawn Witkacy had not smoked cigarettes for 44 days, and the letters RBP in the upper left corner are an abbreviation for the name of the famous participant in the Great French Revolution of 1789, R[o]B[es]P[ierre], which was also the nickname of Professor Leszczynski in the social circle to which Witkacy belonged. In another portrait of the professor (dated September 1931, in the collection of the Museum of Central Pomerania in Slupsk), the artist even depicted him wearing a white 18th-century wig.
The portrait, dated April 14, 1931, participated in Witkacy's exhibitions in Krakow (National Museum) in 1966 and in Paris (Galerie Seine-Visconti) in 1975."
[excerpts from the opinion of Dr. Anna Żakiewicz].