Szerner, Władysław Karol

Szerner, Władysław Karol (Władysław Szerner the Younger), Polish painter, member of the "Munich School". After spending his youth in Munich, where he went to school from 1888-92, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and studied agricultural sciences at the Technical University. He worked with his father Władysław Szerner (1836-1915) in Munich for many years. From 1910-12, he was a foreign member of the Münchner Kunstverein. *19 April 1870 in Przybenice near Skalbmierz, †12 January 1936 in Wośniki near Radom. Son of the painter Władysław Szerner (1836-1915, member of the "Munich School") and his wife Apolonia, née Gepert (*ca. 1834), whose family owned the Przybenice estate. After spending his youth in Munich where he went to school, on 13 October 1888 he joined the nature class given by Johann Caspar Herterich (1843-1905) at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He studied under the graphic artist and historical painter Gabriel von Hackl (1843-1926) and the illustrator, genre and landscape painter Wilhelm Diez (1839-1907) until 1892 and also studied agricultural sciences at the Technical University for four semesters. From 1893/94, he exhibited in Warsaw at the Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts/Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych in Lviv and at the Society of the Friends of Fine Art/Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Sztuk Pięknych in Kraków. He painted similar motifs to his father, which included rider formations and individual soldiers and horses from the Cossack wars and the Tartar invasions of the 17th century, groups of riders with their horses resting in the open countryside, carriage rides (see cover image) and teams of horses at the river and in front of farm buildings, as well as other peasant genre scenes, mostly in lighter colours than his father and often incorporating dramatic scenes. He also frequently copied his father’s works. He added "iun." or "jun." to his signature but they were still confused. After 1900, he was an agricultural worker for a time on the noble estate Lubcza/Lubcza (województwo świętokrzyskie) near Jędrzejów (owned by Stefan Wielowieyski [1865-1931]). From 1909-14, he again showed his works regularly at the Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and from 1910-30 at Salon Feliks Rychling. From 1910-12, he was a foreign member of the Münchener Kunstverein. Towards the end of his life, he lived on the Wźniki estate belonging to Władysław Pruszak (1871–1960), the son-in-law of Józef Brandt (1841-1915, member of the "Munich School"), near Radom. Many of the artist’s works were lost there during the Second World War. His paintings are increasingly being discovered in Polish and international auction houses, some of them fakes.

Literature: Halina Stępień/Maria Liczbińska: Artyści polscy w środowisku monachijskim w latach 1828-1914. Materiały źródłowe, Warsaw 1994, page 16, 63; Polski Słownik Biograficzny, vol. 48, 2012/13

Online: Matriculation database, matriculation register 3, Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, 00516 Wladyslaw Szerner, https://matrikel.adbk.de/matrikel/mb_1884-1920/jahr_1888/matrikel-00516

Joanna Daranowska-Łukaszewska, on Internetowy polski słownik biograficzny (further literature there), https://www.ipsb.nina.gov.pl/a/biografia/wladyslaw-karol-szerner 

One work in the Dorotheum auction house, Vienna, https://www.dorotheum.com/en/l/5943916/

Numerous works on artyzm.com, http://artyzm.com/artysta.php?id=1402

(All links last retrieved in October 2020)

Axel Feuß, October 2020