Bidspirit auction | Włodzimierz Terlikowski (1873–1951)

Włodzimierz Terlikowski (1873–1951) - Portrait of Alain de la Horbe, 1919. Oil on canvas Dimensions: 41 x 33 cm, 43 x 62 cm (with frame) Signed and dated in the lower right corner: ”W. Terlikowski 19”. Provenance: Former collection of Mr. Alain de la Horbe Then inherited to the current owner Private collection, Paris The depicted child is the painter Alain de la Horbe, who knew Terlikowski well. Alain de la Horbe devoted a chapter to Terlikowski and described the creation of his portrait in his book ”Mémoires d’Outres-Tubes”, Éditions Mont Pagnote, 1978. ”Before I painted his portrait, he painted mine in 1919. I wasn't tall. He called me Ali-Baba—a name more familiar than Alain for this Parisian Pole. Before settling in Paris, where my parents met him in 1913 at a charity event, he traveled the world. It was said that at the age of 14, he ran away from home with several sailors from the Vistula River, on whose banks he lived with his parents and numerous siblings. Brought back to his family, he did it again a few years later. This time for good. He was a great joker, and in his stories it was difficult to distinguish truth from fiction. He claimed to have traveled—often on foot—through Europe, sleeping in brothels, where he found shelter, He paid for his food and everything else, paying for his stay with portraits of local women. Settling in Paris, he lived in a small, run-down apartment on the rue de la Grande Chaumière, married to a Polish woman who claimed to be Jewish, though she didn't look it; he was the father of two boys: Włodek (born 1907) and Tika (born 1909). After 1914, he had a studio on the rue des Petits-Champs. In 1918, within a few days, he lost his eldest son to the Spanish flu and was inconsolable in his grief. In the following years, around 1921, he fell in love at first sight with Jeanne, the daughter of politician Georges Leygues, who was married to an American. The two divorced so they could marry. I remember meeting him in 1927 by the roadside while he was painting, while we were riding our bikes around Paris with some school friends and my mother. Nice. I met him again in Paris in 1931, when I was in the premiere class at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand.” Excerpt, pp. 67–68.