Henryk Hertz BARWIŃSKI (1877-1970), Second Lieutenant Felsztynski, 1916

Color lithograph, paper; 26 x 20 cm (clear passe-partout);
Signed on panel p. d.: HB; l. d.: Optowa 1916.
Optowa - a former colony and estate (manor) in Bielska Wola municipality, Sarno district, Volyn province (in the area of the Second Polish Republic). On December 9, 1915, the 4th infantry regiment of the Polish Legions took up positions near Optowa and proceeded to expand them. The outposts, followed by the First Line trenches, ran west and southwest of Optowa. For more than six months the regiment conducted positional battles and patrol skirmishes.
Henryk Barwiński, born Henryk Teodor Hertz, alias Kirkor, Zwidlicz - actor, director, cartoonist. In 1904 he received a call up to the army to the Russian-Japanese front, to avoid this he moved to Krakow and continued acting there. Here, from 1906, he simultaneously studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts under Konstanty Laszczka. In 1913 he became a member of the board of directors of the Union of Artists and Women Artists of Polish Theaters in Galicia. On August 4, 1914, in Lviv, he volunteered for the Polish Legions, and was assigned to the 1st Infantry Regiment of the 1st Brigade, initially in the 2nd Company of the 2nd Battalion, and later in the 4th Company of the 3rd Battalion. He was promoted to second lieutenant and given the position of adjutant of the 3rd Battalion. He organized the Legion Theater, designed the medal honoring the name day of Jozef Pilsudski in 1917. He refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Emperor and in the autumn of 1917 returned to Lviv, where he joined the troupe of the local Municipal Theater. In 1920 he fought in the defense of Lviv, and went into the reserves with the rank of captain. For his heroic participation in the fighting he was twice awarded the Cross of Valor.
Stefan Felsztynski (1888-1966, London) - cavalry major of the Polish Army, legionary, painter. In the Austrian army 1907-1908 as a one-year volunteer, then took up studies at the Lviv Polytechnic (architecture) and the University of Lviv (philosophical department), in 1909-1912 studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, also studied medicine at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. He exhibited paintings since 1910. He served in the Polish Legions from August 1914 in the First Brigade of the LP until the oath crisis in 1917, and was imprisoned by the Austrians in 1918. From the end of 1918 in the Polish Army, from 1919 as a cavalry rotary commander, from 1920 deputy commander of the 211th lancer regiment of the Volunteer Army. After the war of 1920 verified as a cavalry major, he retired in 1929. From 1930 he settled in Cracow, where he was a councilman and also worked for Polish Radio. After the September campaign in 1939-1941 he was imprisoned in the USSR, then served in the PSZ in the Middle East (in 1945-1946 in Beirut). After the war he settled in Britain. He practiced painting, drawing and printmaking mainly applied arts, designed stained glass windows, among other things illustrated the 1st edition of the anatomy textbook by M. Bochenko.