Feliks Michal Wygrzywalski - part 2

1916 Self-Portrait as a Caucasian
oil on plywood 31.5 x 44.2 cm

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.

For earlier works see part 1 also. This is part 2 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.

1923 Capri
oil on canvas 50.5 x 80.5 cm

1923 Capri
oil (details not found)

1923 From Capri motifs
oil on canvas 78 x 96.5 cm

1923 The fishing port of Capri
oil on plywood 31 x 43.5 cm

c1923 At the Arab Souk
oil on cardboard
Private Collection

c1923 Lido
oil on canvas 45.5 x 61 cm

c1923 With the Sun - Capri
oil on plywood 22 x 32 cm

1924 A Nun reading by candlelight
 oil on canvas 86 x 68 cm

1924 In the Port
oil on canvas 49.7 x 80 cm

1925 Arab prayer
oil on plywood 35 x 49 cm

1925 Army of Knights
pastel on card 71 x 54 cm

1925 Big Catch
oil on canvas 64 x 93 cm

1925 Branki
oil on canvas 81.5 x 109.5 cm

1925 Burlaks
oil on canvas  91 x 103 cm
National Museum, Warsaw

1925 Cinderella
pastel on paper 63 x 48 cm

1925 Dancing lesson
oil on canvas 50 x 70 cm

1925 Design of a decorative architectural panel
oil on canvas 56 x 173 cm

1925 Design of a decorative architectural panel
detail

1925 Doctor Shapiro
watercolour and gouache 43.8 x 32.4 cm

1925 Kainit Stebnicki
colour lithograph poster

1925 Sea Wolves
pastel on paper 71.2 x 108.5 cm

1925 The Trevi Fountain, Rome
oil on plywood 22 x 31.5 cm

c1925 Girl at the seashore
 oil on canvas 71 x 102 cm

1926 Nude by the sea
(details not found)

c1929 Capri
oil on canvas 51 x 80 cm

1930 Long live Caprese, ok
oil on canvas 52 x 72 cm

1930 On the beach
oil on canvas 56 x 65.5 cm

1930 The rug weavers
pastel on paper 47 x 66 cm

c1930 Prayer in the desert
oil on canvas 50.4 x 70.4 cm

1931 Boat on the open sea
oil on canvas 44 x 90 cm

1931 Defender of Islam (self-portrait)
pastel on paper 75 x 51 cm

1931 Sunday on a donkey
oil on plywood 32 x 44 cm

1931 The rocky coast of Capri
oil on plywood (size not given)

c1931 In the garden
oil on canvas 73 x 100 cm

before 1932 Lido in the Autumn
oil on plywood 22 x 32 cm

1932 Sea Waves (Capri)
details not given
National Maritime Museum, Gdansk

1932 The Survivors
oil on canvas 63 x 88 cm

1934 Arab women repairing a carpet
watercolour on cardboard 49 x 88 cm

1934 Baltic
oil on plywood (size not found)

c1935 Courtship
oil on canvas 55.5 x 79 cm