THE WARSAW INSTITUTE REVIEW

Date: 1 September 2018    Author: Mariusz Klarecki, PhD

The Kresy: Józef Brandt in search of painterly inspiration

The Kresy, its events and genre scenes are perhaps the most defining topics of Józef Brandt’s oeuvre.

The paintings by Józef Brandt ingeniously capture the particularities of old Polish life and the cultural mosaic underpinning the identity of the Kresy (literally borderlands, though the term yields much broader cultural and historical meaning) at the time. The painter depicted it without forceful grandiloquence or theatrical pomposity. His brushstrokes are frank, yet poetic. While literary works had undoubtedly stimulated his imagination, it was not enough for the young artist. He knew perfectly well that the Kresy are the only place where time truly slows down. It was there that he conceived his characters or such particularities of his oeuvre as decaying wooden khutors, or hamlets, and herds of horses that grazed on local meadows. In the outskirts of the former Kingdom of Poland he grasped the might of endless steppe for the first time; there he discovered old Polish garments and militaria, hidden in estates and palaces of the gentry and doomed to oblivion. He encountered it all while exploring the distant lands of Volhynia, Polesia or Bessarabia, but also on much shorter excursions to Kazimierz Dolny or Cracow. Not all letters by Józef Brandt have lasted to the present day. Some vanished fairly recently; regretfully, as they could have provided a tremendous insight into the artist’s life and travels. This notwithstanding, it is possible to recreate Brandt’s errs by putting together a fragmented mosaic of his correspondence, sketchbooks, photographs, watercolour and oil paintings. To this end, one must focus on the accurate dating of his works, which would allow the most likely sequence of events to be recreated. Inasmuch as paintings are rarely dated by their authors, it seems easier to follow the chronology of woodcut reproductions usually done shortly after the painting was made. This was especially the case in the 1870s. Very often accurate dating is made possible by the minutest details.

In 1871, Brandt and Juliusz Kossak, also a painter, set out on a journey eastward, that is, to Eastern Galicia and the western lands of Podolia. The over one-month-long expedition was documented in four letters penned by Brandt, as well as depicted in illustrations signé Juliusz Kossak, who was Brandt’s dear friend and travelling companion, and Aleksander Gryglewski, whom the two happened to meet in Podhorce. Brandt wrote the first letter on 19th October 1871 in Lviv. We are informed that the travellers commenced their journey on 17th October in Cracow and made their first stopover at the palace of Prince Sanguszko in Gumniska, not far from Tarnów. It is with absolute awe that the artist remembers the visit paid to Sanguszko’s horse stud. On his first day there, he marvelled at 12 stud mares and numerous foals grazing at the pasture located right where the Biała River flows into the Dunajec. ‘All were of tremendously thick bones, broad chests, stout croups, and, above all of excellent legs. That place where they graze, of tradition proudly reaching the times of Hetman Tarnowski, […] marvellous grove bursting with snowball trees, willows, beeches, lush herbage, two rivers, such beauty, oh, how envious I am at these horses and their place of stay^[1]. On the second day, Brandt, joined by Julek, as he called Kossak, admired the finest stallions of the stud. Prince Eustachy demonstrated 12 stallions and 18 carriage horses. One stood out the most: an Arab horse, originally from Turkestan, that Prince Eustachy had bought in Vienna. Brandt imagination is especially captured by leopard-spotted horses, a recurrent topic of his early works: ‘They have there pretty leopard horses, so tiny, as if one gently sprinkled their white background with ink. Incredibly hairy, with marvellous heads, you’d find more skin than meat under their scalp […] So I sketched some, harnessed, as they stood there. But Prince Paweł liked them all too much and greedily took all of my sketches^[2]. In the evening of that very day, the two travellers took a train to Lviv, where they arrived shortly before midnight^[3].

The second letter was written on 24th October 1871, already in Podhorce. Brandt opens with his impressions on Lviv, which he explored with Juliusz Kossak and Kossak’s brother Władysław. In the Ossolineum, the three met Prince Jerzy Lubomirski, who showed them the museum and its collection, prior to the official opening. Brandt notes: ‘They have a pretty array of dated paintings, armours, drawings, books and other sentimental items. The collection is expanding. Surely it will soon be a great selection with the eagerness of this great man that Lubomirski is^[4]. Another highlight of the stay in Lviv was the collection of Count Włodzimierz Dzieduszycki, including a collection of taxidermy that the travellers had a chance to see. It had ‘all specimens of animals inhabiting Poland, birds, fish, plants, rocks, reptiles, trees, fossils, excavated bones of antediluvian animals, in a word, all that lives in Poland, but for people. The cabinet was so big, so splendidly arranged that I don’t remember seeing a rival to it not even once^[5]. The following day was marked by a meeting with a great aficionado of fine arts, the priest Józef Nowakowski, residing in Żółkiew (now Zhovkva in Ukraine). In the parochial church, they marvelled at the tombstones of the Zółkiewskis, the founding family of the town, portraits of King Stephen Báthory or a painting depicting George Rákóczi begging pardon for plundering Poland. There were four monumental paintings, though, that sparked the most attention: Battle of Kłuszyn, commissioned by Żółkiewski himself and three works commissioned by King John III Sobieski, namely Battle of Chocim, Battle of Vienna and Battle of Párkány. Victories of Vienna and Parkany were immortalized in painting by Martin Altomonte, shortly after the Viennese triumph of 1683. Their size is perhaps what impresses the most, with each canvas covering 60 square meters. As Brandt puts it ‘I so ardently studied the paintings that I would infallibly redraw the most minute of their details; we must have spent there several good hours^[6]. Such in-depth studies were part of the artist’s preparation to conceive his own composition two years later. It depicted the onslaught of Polish hussars on a Turkish camp put up by Vienna in 1683^[7]. The very evening, the aspiring artists were back in Lviv, where two days later they caught a train for Złoczów (currently Zolochiv in Ukraine). There they hopped on a bałaguła, a carriage typical of the Kresy, and went to Podhorce (currently Pidhirtsi in Ukraine). As Brandt confesses in his letter, his heart skipped a beat upon seeing the Palace of Podhorce. They were housed in rooms fitted with a canopy, lusciously decorated rooms that boasted ‘an imposing wall of thirty-six hussar armours, originally from hetman Jabłonoswski’s Viennese mission, with their wings and guidons; it had banners, bunchuks, all kinds armours and what not. Other rooms, abounding in paintings, portraits featuring the most magnificent of outfits, were fitted with richly gilded plafonds, furniture, vases, pure delight since it was kept as in the olden days. Two days we spent on sketching, from dawn to dusk; here’s me sketching a hussar armour, and here’s Julek, standing on a wobbly table sketching some fascinating garments depicted on the plafond^[8].

The author, writing to his mother, eagerly describes the material that he gathered over the course of these two days, with which he planned on using when preparing his next painting Battle of Vienna.  Brandt is exceptionally keen on the idea of coming back for longer in the following year. Interestingly, Kossak and Brandt’s stay happened to coincide with that of Aleksander Gryglewski whose painting Crimson Room was reproduced as a woodcut and published in Kłosy Review in 1872^[9].

The third letter was written on 28th September 1871 on a steppe in Strusów (currently Strusov in Ukraine), where Brandt was hosted by Count Włodzimierz Baworowski, owner of Strusów and member of Imperial Council in Vienna. Tarnopol would be the following destination. This was where a gathering of gentry and a horse race were to be held. The two travellers arrived on 25th September aboard a train packed with noblemen taking to the town to attend the gathering. As the painter boasts in his letter, he was presented to numerous household names, including Andrzej Zamoyski, Artur Potocki, Count Jan Tarnowski of Dzików, Jabłonowski, and General Władysław Rozwadowski. The estate and stud farm governed by Włodzimierz Baworowski were set to be the next stopover. Unquestionably, the planned dressage competition promised to be interesting. The following day the travelling duo were already off to Trembowla (currently Terebovlia un Ukraine), where they visited a castle, while joined by a photographer they had met in Strusów. He was supposed to take some photographs^[10] which are currently included in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw. They were donated by the painter’s family five years following his death. Three photographs depict Trembowla, and another three focus on a market organised in the town square of Strusów. They were the inspiration behind Brandt’s painting Ruthenian Market Held in the Town of Strusów, completed already in 1872^[11].

The fourth letter was written on 16th October 1871 in Cracow, after the artists had come back from Eastern Galicia. From the opening paragraph we learn, quite unexpectedly, that the next destination was to be Podhajce, and more precisely the estate of the Czartoryskis, governed by Ludwik Kastory. The two painters arrived there on 29th October. Unfortunately, the weather suddenly worsened. Figuring out the French barometer turned out to be the predominant pastime of this short stay. It also included a visit paid to Kossak’s sister in Kozowa, who treated the wanderers with exquisite confiture. Following that, the artists came back to Podhajce for one day only, and, aboard a carriage, departed for Stanisławów (currently Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine), in the direction of Monasterzyska (currently Monastyryska in Ukraine). Brandt pointed out that Stanisławów, with its cultural mosaic and Ruthenians and Hutsuls as prevailing ethnic groups, differed substantially from northern parts of Galicia. The next destination on the list was Radowice. Again, due to the worsening weather and much lower temperatures, the artists decided to change their plans. As the cold season was advancing, they renounced the idea of going hiking in the mountains, where it had already snowed. Instead, the painters took a train to Lviv, where they stayed overnight. The following morning, they were already on their way to the befriended family of the Count Starzeńskis. They owned an estate in Słowita (currently in Ukraine), in the Przemyśl District. The way from the station to the estate was quite memorable as the painters were escorted by the count and his service, riding on glorious Arab horses from the Dzieduszycki stud farm. The painter had the chance to mount one of these fine coursers the following day, while hunting. The count appreciated Brandt’s unusual equestrian aptness by offering one of his personal horses – a bay Arab named Mazepa. The three-day-long stay was a moment of joy and inspiration. The evenings were celebrated with music and singing, and the joyful moments were depicted in cartoons. Juliusz Kossak was tasked with painting watercolour portraits with horses. Brandt also mentions plans of another stay in Słowita the following year, as the invitation was extended. There were talks of a joint horseback excursion to Radowice and then to the Carpathian Mountains with the count and his wife. It remains unknown whether Brandt actually stuck to his plan of going to the Carpathians. The two painters came back to Lviv amid heavy snowfall. Lviv and Cracow were the last stops of their joint journey. From there, Brandt went on his own to Vienna, where he stayed overnight, and then to Munich^[12].

Andrzej Daszewski^[13], Józef Brandt’s grandchild, mentions another journey that the painter set out on with Juliusz Kossak. It would be in 1874 with the two going to the Ukraine, as far as to Bałta in Podolia (currently Balta in Ukraine). Sadly, we do not know the details of the journey, which makes it uncertain whether it actually took place^[14]. Such details could perhaps be provided by the photographs from the artist’s collection taken between 1870 and 1875, currently owned by the National Museum in Warsaw. They depict Podolia including its villages, ruins of a former defence Basilian monastery in Podgórzany, not far from Trembowla, ruins of a castle and of Carmelite Church in Trembowla, a castle in Olesko. Several photographs were taken in Buczacz (currently Buchach in Ukraine), which depict a Basilian monastery, the town hall, the town, and ruins of a castle^[15].

Brandt sought inspiration also during much shorter excursions. Like the one he made to Kazimierz Dolny, located by the Vistula River. The artist’s collection contains several photographs (also available in the National Museum in Warsaw), taken anonymously  between 1870 and 1875, which depict the parish church, tenements houses of St. Christopher and St. Nicholas as well as wooden constructions of the town’s main square. There are also shots of the Celej House as well as Kazimierz landscape, seen from the southern part of the city, with the Three Crosses Mountain exposed^[16].

One’s imagination is captured by an imposing granary known as the Passion of Christ Granary, located near the river crossing to Janowiec. The photograph must have been taken before 1881, when its ruins were demolished^[17]. It was arguably one of the finest Renaissance granaries in Poland. Similarly, granaries clearly captured Brandt’s imagination as he had decided to paint at least two watercolours featuring granaries precisely in 1875. These were dated by the artist himself, who included the date and place of painting under his signature. Therefore, it was possible to date Brandt’s trip to Kazimierz and perhaps even the following stages of his 1985 travels. One such watercolour, presently privately owned, depicts Feuerstein’s Granary located at 60 Puławska Street^[18]. Another one, owned by the National Museum in Cracow, depicts the Twin Granary, as it was called, located at 46 Puławska Street. Initially, there were two separate granaries sharing one of the side walls. Only half of the construction has lasted to the present day, that is, one granary^[19]. Many other pencil sketches made by the artist at the time were not dated. Therefore, we cannot state with absolute certitude that they depict Kazimierz, even though they focus mainly on wooden architecture. The painter often used them as background for oil paintings representing the life in the towns of Podolia^[20]. Vast landscapes of sandy beaches stretching along a mighty river, which are especially picturesque in Kazimierz Dolny nad Wisłą, are often present in Brandt’s series of paintings entitled At the Crossing. The romantic scenes, focusing on borderland banks of the Dnieper were made as from 1875. They usually depict Cossacks with horses by the river bank, or a group of horse riders with distant gazes as they wait for the crossing. Brandt developed the topic later by depicting the army at the crossing making its way with military supplies.

Thanks to the drawings published by Tygodnik Ilustrowany in early October 1875, we can establish that Brandt was in Warsaw. Two sketches were published under the title Drawings by Józef Brandt. They were two small-sized woodcuts taking on Bessarabia, entitled Gypsies of Bessarabia and Cossack Camp. The artist first sketched them and then slightly collared them with watercolour.  In September or earlier, Brandt must have sent his works to a publisher in order to have them graphically reproduced. Brandt’s arrival in Warsaw in October 1875 is further confirmed by the letter he sent to his mother and uncle Stanisław Lessel. The painter informs: ‘we’re publishing an album of works by Munich painters with Tygodnik Ilustrowany as publisher. When I was in Warsaw, I struck a deal with them, they put me in artistic charge. It would seem that such a publication will be of interest to all. It shall have portraits of the painters involved as well^[21]. Brandt’s excursions to the Kresy assuredly translated into numerous pencil sketches, watercolours and ideas for oil paintings, which the artist put in practice after he came back to Munich. Quite possibly it was in the fall and winter of 1875 that the artist conceived several oil painting compositions, for instance Crossing the Dnieper, Bar Confederates or Cossack and a Girl by the Well^[22].

In 1877 Brandt married Helena Pruszakowa, a widow to Brandt’s old friend Aleksander Pruszak. This was when he closed his ties with Orońsko. From that moment on, the married couple would spend there every summer. Looking after the estate required regular presence, which meant that Brandt could travel elsewhere only between late summer and wet fall season.

A pocket sketchbook, currently privately owned, sheds light on yet another of Brandt’s travels in the years 1879-1887. Brandt would use it during open-air sketching sessions around Munich, drawing sessions in the Oriental Museum in Vienna or during distant travels to Cracow and further into Podolia. And it is precisely his 1884 journey to Podolia that seems the most intriguing, as the majority of sketches include a date and a name of place, where they were made. The journey began on 18^th August in Cracow. There, the artist drew elements of horse tack, with an inscription reading ‘3 horse tacks’ and elements of horses themselves. For the next 10 days, that is, from 31st August until 9^th September, Brandt is hosted by Roman Konopka in his estate in Tomaszowice near Cracow. There, the artist closely studies a dovecot, drying pots (31st August), nineteenth-century cavalry spurs and a horse’s head (9^th September) and a sign hanging in front of an inn reading ‘selling vodka and beer’. Later Brandt went to Lviv, where he stayed in Hotel Krakowski and on 18^th September he closely studied thick ropes.

In the morning of 20th September the artist was already in Mariampol. Sitting on the left bank of the Dniester, he hastily expressed his impressions by giving his drawings such titles: From the Dniester, depicting a boat on a river bank, Overturned Ship, Cabin Next to Galar Construction, and Construction of a Galar (galar is a type of boat especially popular in the 18th century). Brandt drew his attention to an embankment located on the opposite river bank – In the Shallows. Other drawings depict a shepherd’s cabin or little boys standing by the riverside. The sketches are done in a rather hurried fashion, documenting what the artist saw during his journey. This reportage made of drawings gives an impression as if the painter moved along the river on a boat and observed the world from that perspective.

Brandt moved further along the riverside in the following days. In the village of Dołhe he sketched some boys standing by the riverside. In Niżnów, he studied the church and a carriage with horses and people. The drawing made on 22nd September in the village of Dolina presented church towers seen from afar. On the next day, that is, on 23rd September, the painter is forced to go ashore to reach the cemetery of Czernelica village, two kilometres away from the river. There he sketched three tombstones. On his way there, Brandt drew a signpost, a roadside cross, a fence, grazing horses as well as fellow wanderers. That very day, Brandt was back at the riverside, opting for a different way though, straying from the riverside road and passing by the village of Kunisowice. There, a church belfry of unique architecture sparked his interest. Brandt stayed in the area for several days.

The next drawings are marked with a date of 29th September. They were made in the village of Uniż, located on the left bank of the Dniester. They depict household containers, plants, peasant huts and a countryside gate. This journey alongside the Dniester came to a halt in the town of Zaleszczyki. It is located in a picturesque deep ravine, squeezed into a meander of the Dniester. Zaleszczyki was founded by Poland’s last king Stanisław August Poniatowski and belonged to the Poniatowskis. Brandt was inspired by villagers making tar in a yard, which he depicted in two drawings entitled Tar. Back on the shore, Brandt went from Zaleszczyki to Horodenka. It is unlikely that he stayed there for long, as the sketchbook features only one drawing. That of a woman of the village, entitled Horodenka. It remains unknown where he was when he sketched a horse and a pair of stirrups included on a separate sheet of paper dated 7th October.

While on the way from Horodenka to Kołomyja near Czermiatyn, the painter sketched a carriage loaded with timber. The long way to Cracow got perhaps a touch more interesting on 11th October in Szeparówka, when Brandt spotted and sketched a well-sweep or on 19th October in Biłka Królewska (16 kilometres away from Lviv), where steam chimneys piqued his interest. The artist finally arrived in Cracow on 27th October, where he did a drawing of a typical house with an avant-corps and a gambrel roof, incorporated into the city’s modern architecture.

The journey lasted just over two months. The most interesting sketches were made in Podolia, which focus on rural life and landscapes, on the region’s towns and the Dniester bank area. It seems most likely that the artist spent the summer in Orońsko and on 18th August 1884 departed for Cracow and from there to the Kresy. After 27th October, the painter went straight to Munich, where he typically stayed to while away wintertime. The sketches made during his trip to the Kresy were enough to occupy him with composition making in the painter’s atelier in Munich. The small size of the sketchbook as well as the nature of the drawings are proof of Brandt’s very personal approach. He did not sketch to prepare a specific composition. It was rather a brief overview of the surroundings that he felt like ‘photographing by drawing’.

The last group of photographs documented Brandt’s journey to Bessarabia, which he made together with photographer Michał Greim. It most likely was 1888. The photographs depict Moldovan carriage with a four-ox team, Landscape with a herd of buffalo in the river, and Peasants [Gypsies] in front of mud huts^[23]. One photograph is particularly interesting, and depicts peasants standing in front of a mud hut and a shack. Interestingly, it is very similar to Brandt’s missing painting Gypsies of Bessarabia from 1889^[24]. The position of the hut in the photograph is akin to the one in the painting. Similarly, at closer look, one will see that the peasants are wearing the same garments both in the photograph and in the painting. The oil painting, however, has a different composition. Brandt solely selected some elements from the photograph, and by adding horsemen he completely changed the narrative of the painting. In the foreground, he placed hunters asking for directions and gypsy women. The mud hut stands in the background, without its adjacent shack. All in all, the painting seems to depict a genre scene somewhere in the outskirts of the Kresy.

Undoubtedly, travels to the Kresy became intrinsic to Brandt’s artistic practice. The painter had a unique way of translating his experiences and observations into a painting. He enriched elements from photographs or sketches with a historical background or landscapes of wild steppe. The inhabitants of the eastern and southern parts of the Kresy were immortalized first in his sketches, then in his paintings. Such compositions were complemented with accessories of Brandt’s own collection of garments and military equipment. That, combined with Brandt’s excellent painterly skills made for a tremendous oeuvre, depicting not only historical events, but also the reality of the Kresy.

 

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