Wojciech Gerson, Tatra Mountains Landscape with Pine Trees, 1889

69.50 x 55.50 cm - oil, canvas
Signed l.d.: GW | 1889

The painting is accompanied by an opinion by Dr. Stefania Krzysztofowicz-Kozakowska dated April 2023.

Gerson was an accomplished landscape painter, co-founder of the Warsaw school of landscape painting, who was inspired by his wanderings on foot in the country, especially in the Tatra Mountains and Podhale, where he first arrived in 1860 in the company of Alfred Schouppe and Marcin Olszyński. The eighties and nineties mark the creative apogee of Wojciech Gerson, who at that time used the tradition of Romanticism and the moodiness of the Biedermeier era; his interest in mountain subjects increases, and the frequency of trips to the Tatras and Podhale increases. He hikes in the mountains, where he makes drawing and watercolor preparatory studies in the open air, serving as the basis for, created exclusively in the studio, oil works. He painted rocky peaks, mountain ponds, streams, valleys, waterfalls, recreating the sometimes menacing mood of the majestic mountains.

The Tatra landscape with pine trees was painted with all the rules of realism, with precise interest in all the details of nature, especially the foreground, using a muted color palette, dominated by shades of green and ochre, which give a golden in tone and a luminous effect; the surface of the painting was treated smoothly.

This work is part of Wojciech Gerson's series of Tatra landscapes from around 1880-1890. The composition in question shows clear analogies in the treatment of the Tatra landscape with such works as:. Bramka Valley in the Tatra Mountains from 1890 (National Museum in Cracow), Mountain Landscape from 1885 (National Museum in Warsaw), View from the vicinity of Morskie Oko from around 1888 (National Museum in Wroclaw) or Dried-up Brook in the Tatra Mountains from 1893 (National Museum in Warsaw).

From the opinion of Dr. Stefania Krzysztofowicz-Kozakowska

Wojciech Gerson (Warsaw 1831 - Warsaw 1901) painter, educator; in 1844-1851 he studied at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts under Jan Feliks Piwarski, Christian Breslauer and Marcin Zaleski, and in 1853-1855 at the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. In 1856 he went to Paris, where he still studied in the studio of Leon Cogniet and studied independently in museums. In 1858, after returning to Warsaw, he developed extensive artistic and public activities. In 1860 he was one of the founders of the Warsaw Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts. He taught painting and drawing at the Warsaw Drawing Class and in his own studio, educating several generations of painters. His students included Chełmoński, Wyczółkowski, Stanisławski, Podkowiński and Pankiewicz. In 1878 he received the title of professor at the St. Petersburg Academy. He traveled abroad - to Berlin, Italy, Vienna, Prague and several times to Paris. He traveled extensively around the country, and was especially frequent and eager to go to the Tatra Mountains. He painted genre country scenes, portraits, historical and religious paintings and landscapes - including many Tatra landscapes.