Władysław Malecki

Władysław Aleksander Malecki ( born January 3, 1836 in Masłów Pierwszy; † March 5, 1900 in Szydłowiec ) was a Polish landscape painter of realism.

Life

Malecki was the second of three sons of the petty nobility and indigent spouses Ignacy and Karolina, born Chmielewska. Ignacy Malecki worked with an authority as a writer, later as a cashier at a mining company in Suchedniow. The son Władysław first worked as a stage decorator in Antonio Sacchetti in Warsaw. From 1852 to 1856 he studied then painting at the Academy of Fine Arts under Christian Breslauer.

Subsequently, he received a state scholarship and was able to continue his studies abroad. In 1865 he was at the School of Applied Arts in Vienna and from 1867 to 1868 with Eduard Schleich at the Munich Academy of Art. After completing his studies he remained in Munich until 1879; from here he made multiple trips through Bavaria, Poland and Tyrol. Exhibitions of his paintings in Poland was hardly success; abroad he received but several prizes: a gold medal in 1879 for the " Storchensejm ", a silver medal in 1877 in London for the landscape painting " In the Bavarian mountains " and bronze medals in 1872 and 1874 in London, as well as 1873 in Vienna.

In 1880 he returned to Poland. He could not have hoped for employment as a decorative painter and earned his livelihood with difficulty as an art teacher for children.

Maleckis work contains many paintings from the landscape and villages of the Holy Cross Mountains. A long time he lived in Szydłowiec, whose mayor supported him and let live and work until his death in City Hall Tower. There are many pictures were taken to the small town, urban events and local personalities. Despite its initial success in foreign exhibitions Maleckis the work has been recognized throughout his life not by fellow artists, critics or collectors in Poland. So he lived in very humble circumstances and died penniless and forgotten. It was only many years after his death took his work attention; its importance as one of the fathers of the realistic, Polish landscape painting has been detected. Today there are several of his works in the National Museum in Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan, Szczecin and Kielce. The often small paintings in oil and watercolor are characterized by a concentration on the Picturesque, and less on the content. At the beginning of the Munich painting influenced later the French style of painting by Jean -Baptiste Camille Corot and the Barbizon school gained more importance in Maleckis works.