Feliks Michal Wygrzywalski - part 1

Self Portrait 1910

Feliks Michał Wygrzywalski (1875 Premysyl - 1944 Rzeszow) was a Polish painter; remembered primarily for his Orientalist scenes and portraits. He also created a significant number of nudes. Thanks to a scholarship from the Malinowski Foundation, he was able to study at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich from 1893 to 1898. This was followed by some time at the Académie Julian in Paris and a study trip to Italy.

In 1900, he decided to settle in Rome and married a local woman named Rosa Imassa. His studies there consisted largely of copying the Old Masters, but he also created landscapes and nudes. Later, he provided illustrations for the Polish travel magazine, Wedrowiec (The Wanderer), as well as magazines in Germany and Russia.

In 1906, he visited Egypt, creating numerous paintings and sketches for later use. When he came back to Poland in 1908, he lived in Lwów, where he had been commissioned to paint murals at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He also did some stage designs. During Worls War I, he moved to Rostov-on-Don and became a drawing professor. He returned to Lwów when the war was over.

He was a frequent participant in exhibitions, but his first personal showing came only in 1932, at the local "Society of Friends of the Fine Arts". During this period, his major work was a series of fourteen paintings, depicting the history of dance, for the sanatorium at the health resort in Krynica-Zdrój. For most of his later life, he maintained his own art salon in Lwów called, in German, "Kunstaustellung" (art exhibit). During the post-war depression, many upper-class people sold their paintings there; often entire collections.

In July 1944, at the approach of the Red Army, he was forced to flee Lwów, leaving all of his possessions behind. He found refuge at a tenement house in Rzeszów, but died only a few months later, from a stroke; possibly the result of an injury he suffered while fleeing. He was buried at the local cemetery, but his grave has not survived.

His works may be seen at numerous museums throughout Poland and Ukraine. In 2012, the city of Lódz organised an exhibition called "Between Capri and Lviv - painting travels by Feliks Michał Wygrzywalski." The following year, the National Maritime Museum, Gdansk, presented some of his works as part of a series on Polish artists and the sea.

This is part 1 of a 5-part series on the works of Feliks Michał Wygrzywalski:

Note: Wygrzywalski often painted variations of a painting that look very similar but have minor  differences.

1886 Gypsy fortune-telling from cards
oil on canvas 73.5 x 53 cm

1894 The General Exhibition of Polish Art in Lviv
lithographic poster
National Museum in Krakow

1898 Apotheosis of Mickiewicz
watercolour
National Museum in Krakow

1898-1902 Reflections
oil on panel
National Museum in Krakow

1902 Fiddler
pencil and white chalk on paper 38 x 53 cm

1904 The rise of songs
gouache and charcoal on cardboard
National Museum in Warsaw

1905 Card players
oil on panel 28 x 44.5 cm

1905 Portrait of a man
oil on canvas 67 x 38.5 cm

c1905 Venetian
Masovian Museum, Płock

after 1906 Fishing on the Nile
Regional Museum in Torun

1906 Capri
oil on board 19.7 x 34.9 cm

1907 Tree on the edge
oil on panel 17 x 28 cm

1907 Wind in the Egyptian desert. Hamsin
oil on plywood 50 x 70 cm

1908 A cart in front of the inn
oil on canvas 54 x 85.5 cm

1908 Coastal rocks
oil on panel 17 x 28 cm

1908 Pageant
watercolour, gouache and ink on cardboard

Mercury - Hermes (Self Portrait) 1910
pastel & distemper on paper 75 x 82 cm
© Mazovian Museum, Plock, Poland / Bridgeman Images

1911 Lago di Ninfa
National Museum in Wrocław

1912 Street after the rain, Rostov
oil 22 x 31.5 cm
Private Collection

1913 Portrait of a man
pastel on paper 8.9 x 7.8 cm

1914 Athena
oil on plywood 58 x 49 cm

1914 Pulling a boat (self-portrait)
oil on canvas 53 x 70 cm

1914-18 Portrait of Yushchenko's Don Cossack
oil on plywood 32 x 45 cm

c1915 Fishermen from Naples
National Museum in Kraków

1917 Charon's boat
oil on lined canvas 62.5 x 93 cm

1918 Carpet seller
oil on plywood 32 x 45.5 cm

1918 In the mine
oil on plywood 36.5 x 50.5 cm

1918 Rest of the fishermen
watercolour and gouache on paper 44.2 x 64 cm

1919 Constantinople (Istanbul)
oil on plywood 22.5 x 31.5 cm

1919 Pipe smokers in Constantinople
watercolour on cardboard 47 x 58 cm

1920 A fisherman repairing nets
watercolour on paper 60 x 80 cm

1920 Street Musicians
oil on canvas 51.2 x 66.2 cm

c1920 Gypsy Girl
oil on canvas
Private Collection

1922 Fishermen
oil on canvas 48 x 90 cm

1922 Heeled
oil on canvas 56 x 77 cm
Private Collection

1922 Landscape
oil on cardboard 22 x 37 cm

1922 Lola
pastel on cardboard 61.5 x 44.2 cm
Private Collection

1922 Mermaids
oil on canvas 98 x 128 cm

1922 Seascape with fishermen
oil on canvas 48 x 92 cm

c1922 A fisherman pulling a net out of the sea
oil on canvas 61 x 81.5 cm