Oil on cardboard; dimensions: 22 x 29 cm; signed lower right: "LESZEK STANKO | 2008 R"
The work was created during a plein air painting session in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland.
Leszek Stańko (1924–2011) was a landscape painter associated with the artistic communities of Silesia and Zakopane. He was born in Sosnowiec as the son of the well-known painter Michał Stańko. From 1945 to 1947, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków under Wojciech Weiss, Ignacy Pieńkowski, and Fryderyk Pautsch. Initially, he worked as a draftsman and illustrator at the Bielsko Animation Studio and at the Animation Film Studio in Warsaw, but later devoted himself entirely to painting. From 1956 onward, he was a member of the Warsaw-based “Zachęta” art group. He gained the greatest popularity for his atmospheric landscapes of the Tatra Mountains, as well as views of the Silesian Beskids and the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. Continuing the tradition of Polish landscape painting, he developed his own distinctive style based on subtle color palettes and a sensitive observation of nature.
