Bidspirit auction | stanislaw jaworski

stanislaw jaworski - Jews Departing the Shtetl, Polish Painting, 1921. Painted by the Polish artist Stanisław Jaworski of Lviv in 1921. Jaworski studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1904, subsequently pursuing his studies under the celebrated artist Władysław Ślewiński — a disciple of Paul Gauguin and a preeminent figure of the Young Poland movement in art. The work is believed to have been inspired by Samuel Hirszenberg's seminal painting ”Exile” of 1904. The composition depicts a bearded Jewish man adorned with payot, wearing a hat characteristic of Eastern European Jewry. He bears a sack upon his back, presumably containing his worldly possessions. Behind him walks his wife, cradling an infant in her arms, accompanied by a young child who clutches at the folds of his mother's shawl. The painting is understood to have been conceived in the aftermath of one of the devastating pogroms suffered by the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe — catastrophic events that drove countless families from their homes, compelling them to wander the breadth of the continent in desperate search of refuge. Artwork dimensions: Height: 61.5 cm Width: 43.5 cm