Dark Classics

Władysław Podkowiński, Chopin's Funeral March (Marsz żałobny Chopina)

2012-03-01T23:45:00.004+01:00

Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie

Date: 1894
Technique: Oil on canvas, 83.5 x 119.5 cm

/.../ Just how much artists intently listened to the Chopin inspirations is demonstrated by the last work of Władysław Podkowiński, Marsz żałobny Chopina (Chopin's funeral march), started in the fall of 1894, unfinished, because it was interrupted by the artist's death. The impulse for creating this symbolic composition was a poem by Kornel Ujejski Marsz pogrzebowy (Funeral march) from the series Tłumaczenia Chopina i Beethovena (Translations of Chopin and Beethoven). The poet's story about a man in despair after loosing his love was brought to several metaphorical signs deprived of any literalness - to a somber, forested landscape, outlines of bells, birds and angels, clouds of mist and the figure of a man with his hands spread and face twisted with spasmodic grimace, showing faintly in the depths. Independent of the literary inspirations, the young painter, harassed by attacks of progressive tuberculosis, concluded a metaphor of his own fate in the work - the battle with pain, fear and intense sense of dying. Cezary Jellenta, an outstanding critic, author of the theory of intensivism, thoroughly analyzed this canvas, writing that Podkowiński, like no one else, understood that "despair, when it fills the entire essence of a person, takes away his sight and ability to comprehend - and plunges him into one terrible, stone deaf muddle of impressions". Marsz żałobny Chopina was a modernist masterpiece of "intensity of feelings" and spoke to this, what Jellenta thought was most important, and what manifests through:
unity and speed, immediacy, lightning fast impressions, that great painters can sometimes achieve, who audaciously blended all the minor effects and shapes into a single, mighty painting, into one enormous accent and mood: clash, whirlwind, thunderbolt, distress, danger, vividness.
(Aleksandra Melbechowska-Luty)

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Władysław Podkowiński, Frenzy of Exultations (Szał uniesień)

2012-03-01T18:25:00.004+01:00

Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie

Date: 1893
Technique: Oil on canvas, 310 x 275 cm

Frenzy of Exultations, or better known as just Frenzy, is an 1893 painting by Polish artist, Władysław Podkowiński, and is credited as the most famous work in his output. It is considered the first work of symbolism in Polish art, which lasts when Poland was torn off by neighbours: Russia, Germany and Austria.

The painting shows a naked, redheaded woman riding a black, frenetic horse. The horse reveals its teeth, and its tongue hangs out. Its nostrils are dilated and foam runs from its mouth. The woman riding the horse clasps its neck with her eyes closed, her loose hair fans out and flows upwards to mingle with the horse's mane. The canvas is over 3 meters in height, resulting in life sized figures.

The color range is quite narrow and is composed of blacks, browns and grays contrasting with the white and yellow. The image is divided into light and dark parts. The upper left corner is illuminated, directing attention to a clear figure of a woman and the horse's mouth. The right side of painting shows whirled darkness in which you can see the horse's hind and tail.

The concept of this work dates back to Podkowiński's stay in Paris in 1889, but the emergence of successive oil sketches and charcoal studies in the second half of 1893 was the consequence of the growing drama of unrequited love in the artist's life. In his vision, Podkowiński elevates erotic ecstasy to an absolute value, regarding it, in accordance with the psychologism current for that time, as the cosmic power and determinant of the human condition. Setting about the execution of the huge painting, he employed the academic method of preparatory sketches that correspond to the final version while differing slightly one from another in size and colour. Reduced in colour scheme, they range from the ultramarine version (lost), through work enlivened with green, to the subsequent ones, in which intense orange predominates. The avalanche of stones was removed from final version as well. In comparison with the sketches, the final, monumental composition gained in dynamism and the previously weak contrast of colour intensified to that between golden and black, and the tension between light and shadow was more polarised. This could be an effect of his private life drama and the progress of his lung disease.

Podkowiński started to paint in Warsaw between 1893 and 1894. The creation process lasted at least three months and according to a friend: at the end he was painting from his bed. The painting was shown at the Zachęta exhibition on 18 March 1894. The exhibition was accompanied by an atmosphere of sensationalism and scandal but around 12,000 people saw the picture, making nearly 350 rubles for the gallery.

Despite the success of the painting, it couldn't find a buyer: 3000 rubles was offered, but Podkowiński asked for 10,000.

On the morning of 24 April 1894 (37 days since the exhibition opening), just before the planned end, the painting was cut with a knife by its creator. The reasons for this act are unclear.

Podkowiński's act of desecration may have contributed to the rumors that the image portrayed a woman towards which the artist had an unfulfilled affection. The dasmage of the image, and Podkowinski's death soon afterwards fueled the speculation of his death being a suicide. Providing a rationale for this explanation are the traces of cuts on the canvas showing that only the image of the woman was subject to the attack. The object of the artist's feelings could be Ewa Kotarbińska, whom he met during his summer stay in a palace near Warsaw. She was a brunette, but some record that her family saw a similarity between her and the woman in the painting and harshly condemned him.

After Podkowinski's death the painting was restored by Witold Urbański. The restored work was lent to other exhibitions in Łódź, Kraków, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Finally, the canvas was purchased by Feliks Jasieński in 1901 for 1,000 rubles, and in 1904 was given to the National Museum in Kraków.

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Albert Welti, Violinist by a Grave (Geigenspiel am Grab)

2012-02-29T14:55:00.003+01:00

Private collection

Date: 1904
Technique: Etching, 38.2 x 49 cm

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Carl Strathmann, The Source (Die Quelle)

2012-02-29T12:57:00.003+01:00

Private collection

Date: 1900
Technique: Gouache over color chalks, 72.7 x 101.5 cm

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Jean-Léon Gérôme, Duel After a Masquerade Ball (Suite d'un bal masqué)

2012-02-28T13:30:00.002+01:00

The State Hermitage, Saint Petersburg (Государственный Эрмитаж)

Date: 1859
Technique: Oil on canvas, 68 x 99 cm

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Henry de Groux, Vers la Grotte

2012-02-27T12:36:00.004+01:00

Private collection

Date: c. 1900
Technique: Oil on canvas laid on panel, 50 x 60 cm

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Oskar Zwintscher, Grief (Gram)

2012-02-26T12:46:00.002+01:00

Städtischen Galerie Dresden

Date: 1898
Technique: Oil on canvas, 150.5 x 150.2 cm

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John Tenniel, The Nemesis of Neglect

2012-02-24T12:09:00.004+01:00

Date: 1888

Cartoon commenting on the Jack the Ripper murders.

The Nemesis of Neglect is a cartoon alluding to the social neglect of the Victorian time. Published in Punch the cartoon illustrates a ghostly figure with “crime” on its head roaming the streets of the city with a dagger. The cartoon reveals the fears during the time of the Whitechapel murders and also the issues in the city arising from lack of police vigilance.

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François-Nicolas Chifflart, The Conscience (La Conscience)

2012-02-22T12:29:00.002+01:00

Date: 1877
Technique: Charcoal on paper, 56.7 x 41.4 cm

Illustration for Victor Hugo's La Conscience

The famous Cain poem, written in 1853 and appearing in the 1859 first edition of La Légende des siècles, is an apt rendering of Victor Hugo's moral preoccupations, in this case, the first recordered Biblical murder, when Cain killed his brother Abel. Hugo's short narrative (sixty-eight lines) traces the itinerary of the fleeing Cain who, with his family, seeks asylum from the powerful wrath of Jehovah. The motif of a long voyage, filled with suffering, already exploited by Hugo in the Mazzepa poem of Les Orientales (1829) is here reiterated as a frightening exodus, as Cain, his family, and his descendants seek calm and peace. But for Cain there is none, for he is pursued by the Eye of God. Thus, even when he attempts to bury himself underground, the eye is always there, menacing and judging: L'oeil était dans la tombe et regardait Cain (The eye was in the tomb and kept looking at Cain). This poignant and persistent symbol of a bad conscience, hence the title of the poem, is somewhat akin to similar symbolismus found in the writings of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). Helmut Hatzfeld in his Initiation à l'explication de textes français (Munich: Max Hueber, 1957) speaks of Hugo's success in fusing history and symbolism, making Cain's murder of Abel a very typical Romantic and visionary text.
(John Andrew Frey, A Victor Hugo encyclopedia)

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Arnold Böcklin, Prometheus

2012-02-21T10:02:00.002+01:00

Private collection

Date: 1882
Technique: Oil on canvas, 116 x 150 cm

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Evelyn de Morgan, The Love Potion

2012-02-20T21:14:00.003+01:00

De Morgan Centre, London

Date: 1903
Technique: Oil on canvas, 104.1 x 52.1 cm

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Salvator Rosa, Saul and the Witch of Endor

2012-02-19T12:17:00.005+01:00

Musée du Louvre, Paris

Date: 1668 (?)
Technique: Oil on canvas, 273 x 193 cm

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Leon Wyczółkowski, Sarkofagi

2012-02-18T10:56:00.002+01:00

Muzeum Narodowe, Poznań

Date: 1895
Technique: Oil on canvas

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Charles Gilbert-Martin, Death Illuminating Tonkin

2012-02-16T09:57:00.002+01:00

Date: 1884

Illustration from Le Don Quichotte magazine.

Charles Gilbert-Martin (1839-1905) founded the caricature periodical Le Don Quichotte in Bordeaux in 1874.

The Tonkin Campaign was a armed conflict fought between June 1883 and April 1886 by the French against, variously, the Vietnamese, Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army and the Chinese Guangxi and Yunnan armies to occupy Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and entrench a French protectorate there. The campaign, complicated in August 1884 by the outbreak of the Sino-French War and in July 1885 by the Can Vuong nationalist uprising in Annam, which required the diversion of large numbers of French troops, was conducted by the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps, supported by the gunboats of the Tonkin Flotilla. The campaign officially ended in April 1886, when the expeditionary corps was reduced in size to a division of occupation, but Tonkin was not effectively pacified until 1896.

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Beneš Knüpfer, The Embrace

2012-02-15T11:27:00.003+01:00

Private collection

Date: Unknown
Technique: Oil on canvas, 150 x 164 cm

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Albert Welti, Walpurgis Night (Walpurgisnacht)

2012-02-14T08:57:00.002+01:00

Kunsthaus Zürich

Date: 1896/97
Technique: Tempera on wood, 93 x 69 cm

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Nikolaos Gyzis, The Spider (Η αράχνη)

2012-02-12T14:50:00.003+01:00

National Gallery, Athens (Εθνική Πινακοθήκη)

Date: 1884
Technique: Oil on panel, 71 x 51.5 cm

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Richard Cockle Lucas, And scarcely had he Maggie rallied When out the hellish legion sallied

2012-02-12T12:27:00.003+01:00

From Tam O'Shanter by Robert Burns.

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Tauromaquia

2012-02-09T00:34:00.002+01:00

Musée Historique Lorrain, Nancy

Date: 1894
Technique: Lithography, 54.5 x 73 cm

The cover of a collection of etchings by Francisco de Goya entitled Goya - La Taureaumachie.

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Frans Francken II, Death and the Merchant

2012-02-07T11:43:00.004+01:00

Kunstsammlung der Universität, Göttingen

Date: First half of the 17th century
Technique: Oil on copper, 16.5 x 13 cm

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Carlos Schwabe, Spleen et ideal (III)

2012-02-03T10:40:00.004+01:00

Date: Unknown
Technique: Unknown

Illustration de Baudelaires Les Fleurs du Mal, Paris: Charles Meunier, 1900.

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Arnold Böcklin, Astolf reitet mit dem Haupte Orills davon

2012-02-01T10:26:00.004+01:00

Kunstmuseum Basel

Date: 1873
Technique: Oil on canvas

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Filippo Napoletano, Dante and Virgil in the Underworld

2012-01-31T10:52:00.003+01:00

Private collection

Date: c. 1622
Technique: Oil on slate, oval 44 x 60 cm

The subject of the painting, depicting odd skeletal creatures, is inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, in which the author describes his visit to the underworld with Virgil. Two standard features of Dante's Hell are included: Charon's boat, and Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guards the underworld. The huge arched structure is based on the ruins of the Basilica of Maxentius, making it likely that the picture was painted in Rome.

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Jan Mandijn, The Temptation of Saint Anthony

2012-01-29T01:02:00.003+01:00

Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Date: c. 1550
Technique: Oil on panel, 61.5 x 83.5 cm

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Jean Bellegambe, The Last Judgment

2012-01-27T11:19:00.003+01:00

Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Date: c. 1525
Technique: Oil on oak panel, 222 x 178 (central), 222 x 82 cm (each wing)

In this triptych the artist employed both late-Medieval and High Renaissance manners, the latter derived from secondhand sources such as Marcantonio Raimondi's reproductive prints.

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