oil, canvas; 50 x 61 cm;
Signed and described l. g.: A. Halicka / 1914.
Alicja Halicka was born in Krakow but was a mature artist who settled in Paris and traveled to the United States in the 1930s. She was the wife of Louis Marcoussis (Louis Markus), one of the leading representatives of Cubism and the Parisian artistic avant-garde. The artist is also associated with the so-called Ecole de Paris school. She studied under the masters of Young Poland - Leon Wyczółkowski and prominent landscape painters and more: Wojciech Weiss and Jozef Pankiewicz.
As Karolina Zychowicz recalls, "Alicja Halicka is one of the most recognizable artists of Polish origin. However, researchers claim that the full development of her talent was hampered by her marriage to Ludwik Markus." He also cites Artur Winiarski, who stressed "it is now presumed that Halicka, precisely because of her husband's strong artistic personality, was unable or unwilling to fully pursue her interest in cubist painting and develop her work in printmaking."
Zychowicz also cites an account of Halitskaya's 1914 exhibition, when the artist first presented her work at the Salon of Independents and Apollinaire described the painter's work, particularly her still lifes, in the following words: "Halitskaya possesses a manly, realistic ability, thanks to which she knows how to construct a picture wisely without deforming the composition."
(source: zacheta.art.pl - accessed 01.04.2020)
