Wladyslaw Bakalowicz (1833-1903)

Bakalowicz studied at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts from 1849 to 1854. In 1863 he left for France; he settled permanently in Paris and became a French citizen. The artist was married to actress Wiktoryna Szymanowska. Their son Stefan was also a painter.

Early in his career Bakalowicz painted portraits, genre scenes, and historical canvases on Polish themes. These earlier works include King Zygmunt August and Barbara Radziwill, Prince Karol Radziwill Receiving a delegation of Bar Confederates, and Bazaar Outside the Iron Gates. His most representative works, however, are genre scenes drawn from sixteenth- and seventeenth- century French history, especially the court of Henry III Valois. Executed in oil, pastel, or watercolor, these small-scale compositions reveal Bakalowicz`s fondness for the realistic rendering of details of costume and interior. Sources foe the artist`s treatments can be found in Dutch masters and in the contemporary works of Ernest Meissonier, influences that are particularly evident ,for example, in Lord Buckingham at the Court of Louis XIII, and Episode from St. Bartholomewis Night.

Bakalowicz`s work was well received by the French and internationally, and he exhibited at the Paris salons (1865, 1883), in such provincial cities as Lyons, Bordaux, Reims, Rouen , Nice, and Pau, and also in London, Brussels, Berlin, Viennam and New Uork. Two full-length portraits were shown at the Loan Exhibition of the Polish Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1944.

Bakalowicz remained in constant contact with Poland and participated in exhibitions at the Warsaw “Zacheta” Society of Fine Arts, the Krakow Society of Fine Arts, and the Warsaw salon of Alexander Krywult, where posthumous exhibitions were mounted in 1904 and 1906.

The artist`s paintings are in museum collections in Warsaw, Krakow, and Radom, as well as in many private collections in Poland and abroad.

Bakalowicz frequently signed his works “LADISLAUS” or “L.”.

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