Teodor Axentowicz (1859 Brasov/Romania - 1938 Krakow), Portrait of a woman in pearls

pastel, cardboard, 68 x 47cm. Signed l. middle: "T.Axentowicz"

"Axentowicz. The name is like some kind of label of beauty with subtle harmony of pastel colors. A great card in the history of Polish art. (...) The female head - is the specialty of the master Axentowicz. He painted beauties of the aristocracy and patriciate of Cracow. (...) Axentowicz's airily thrown pastel line selected from the model only what was beautiful and characteristic, melting negative features in a delicate shadow. And always between the figure and the viewer looking at it, she suspended a kind of ethereal veil of sentiment."
M. Janoszanka, Memoir of Axentowicz, "Culture. Tygodnik literacki, artystyczny i społeczny" 1938, no. 37, p. 7