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Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski

Schlittenfahrt, 1890–1900, Öl auf Holz, 28 x 48 cm
©
Muzeum Okręgowe, Suwałki

Every morning in May 1910, Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski, an important representative of the Munich circle of Polish artists, regarded the cloudy skies over the city with suspicion. Many years after completing his monumental painting (5 x 10 metres), showing the dramatic scene of a pack of wolves attacking a family on a sleigh ride (Ill. 1), he decided to exhibit the work in public. The Old Town Hall where the picture was finally made accessible was also visited by members of the Prince Regent’s family. Prince Regent Luitpold, Prince Ludwig and Princess Gisela, who reviewed the work in the presence of its creator, were full of praise. But what was the use of such well-meant words when, as the artist wrote to his son: “there are only a few people to be seen in the exhibition. What bad luck must I have, that it is dark […], raining ceaselessly since the first day, as cold as it is in December, with the upshot that people are freezing and the room is yawningly empty despite all the advertising and attempts to attract the general public.”[31]

 

This was a painful experience for the artist, whose works had been highly regarded internationally since his first youthful attempts at painting. Despite the fact that this exhibition of his work failed to enjoy any success the artist’s creations still arouse worldwide interest.

 

[31] Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski to his son Czesław, München, May 1910. Instytut Sztuki PAN w Warszawie [the Art Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw].

Mediathek Sorted

Media library
  • Fig. 1 Attack by wolves - Woodcut
  • Abb. 2 View of Suwałki seen from Augustów - Lithograph by Alojzy Misierowicz, Album Augustowskie
  • Abb. 3 Baptismal certificate of Alfred Jan Maksymilian Wierusz-Kowalski - Church of St Alexandra in Suwałki, 02.12.1849
  • Abb. 4 Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski - In Kalisz
  • Fig. 5 Post van in the city - Pencil on paper, 23.5 x 32 cm
  • Fig. 6 Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski - Portrait from the time in Dresden
  • Fig. 7 Girl with violets - Oil on canvas, 50 x 38 cm
  • Fig. 8 The return of the fundraiser - Oil on canvas, 42 x 65,8 cm
  • Fig. 9 Courtships - Oil on canvas, 50 x 42 cm
  • Fig. 10 On patrol - Watercolours, gouache on paper, 23.7 x 21.7 cm
  • Fig. 11 Horse riding in the park - Before 1880, oil on canvas, 30 x 54 cm
  • Fig. 12 Returning home from the market - Oil on canvas, 61 x 96 cm
  • Fig. 13 Travelling mishap - Oil on canvas, 56.5 x 101 cm
  • Fig. 14 Caucasian reconnaissance - Oil on canvas, 61 x 101 cm
  • Fig. 15 Rest of an insurgent - Oil on wood, 20 x 35 cm
  • Fig. 16 In his Munich studio - Portrait, between 1895-1905.
  • Fig. 17 Portrait of Jadwiga, the artist's wife - Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski, oil on canvas, 101 x 79 cm
  • Fig. 18 Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski's children Janina, Michalina and Czesław - Munich, photography by Studio Otto Reitmayer
  • Fig. 19 Bear hunting - Before 1889, oil on canvas, 102 x 73 cm
  • Fig. 20 Attack by wolves - Between 1885-1890, oil on canvas, 110 x 150 cm
  • Fig. 21 Sledge ride - Between 1890-1900, oil on wood, 28 x 48 cm
  • Fig. 22 Polish farmers' journey - Oil on canvas, 45 x 58.5 cm
  • Fig. 23 Horse-drawn carriage at a ford - Oil on canvas, 72 x 118 cm
  • Fig. 24 Miniature of Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski - Fragment of a fan painted on both sides by Munich artists, oil on wood, 57.8 x 32 cm
  • Fig. 25 Polish Post - After 1883, oil on canvas, 56 x 45 cm
  • Fig. 26 Wolves at night, 1890s XIXth century - Oil on canvas, 74.5 x 100 cm
  • Fig. 27 Holy Hein - Nach 1903, Öl auf Leinwand, 47 x 62 cm
  • Fig. 28 Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski's studio in Munich - 1889-1890, photograph

Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski
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Schlittenfahrt, 1890–1900, Öl auf Holz, 28 x 48 cm
Schlittenfahrt, 1890–1900, Öl auf Holz, 28 x 48 cm
©
Muzeum Okręgowe, Suwałki

In 1910 he made another attempt to regain his dwindling popularity by preparing a panorama-like version of Attacked by Wolves (5 x 10 metres in size) for an exhibition: a work he had completed many years ago. He reckoned with a success and a sale of the work, whose sketches that had hung for many years in his workshop in Herzogstraße 15 (Ill. 28), and attracted enthusiastic reactions from both critics and visitors alike.

In the end he submitted to the feeling of his fading glory, unable to understand the changes taking place around him and occupied by the difficulties of his life, the expensive upkeep of an estate he had purchased in 1896 in Mikorzyn, near Konin, his growing children, his wife’s ailments and his own malaise.

After the outbreak of the First World War the family – the Wierusz-Kowalskis were subjects of the Russian Czar – was split up between fronts and borders. Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski died on 15th February 1915 and was buried at the Waldfriedhof in Munich.[30] His workshop was dissolved by the family and the circumstances of great difficulty. In April 1917 the pictures were sold at an auction in the Hugo Helbing Kunsthaus. His workshop equipment, the furniture, the easels and his remaining artistic estate and archive were taken to Poland. In Munich there remained only the memory and the pictures, witnesses to 40 years of masterly artistic work.

 

Eliza Ptaszyńska, May 2017

 

[30] In 1936 the family moved Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski’s grave to the Powązki cemetery in Warsaw.

Schlittenfahrt, 1890–1900, Öl auf Holz, 28 x 48 cm
©
Muzeum Okręgowe, Suwałki
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