Henryk Berlewi (1894 Warsaw - 1967 Paris), Portrait of a Woman, 1951.

oil, cardboard, 50 × 40 cm
signed, and dated p. g.: "H.BERLEWI 51"

on the reverse, author's (?) inscription: "Henryk Berlewi 1951/Paris".

In 1926-1927, Henryk Berlewi moved away from avant-garde abstraction, focusing primarily on portrait painting, which was quite distant from his previous interests. Berlewi's portraits had little in common with his earlier works. They were traditional depictions, usually of women, showing models in classical poses. Berlewi used gently encircling outlines and a subdued color palette, subtly bringing out the beauty of the people depicted. After the war, between 1947 and 1956, the artist entered a new phase of his work, which he himself called "reintegration of the subject." At that time he focused on figurative painting, creating compositions with synthetic, simplified forms, with cubist elements. At the time, he painted mainly still lifes, but there were also portrait representations in his work.