Leon PICCARD (1843–1917), The Hermit of Balladyna, 1884

woodcut, paper; 21 x 17 cm (inside the mat);
signed on the block, lower left: LPiccard 1884.
Leon Piccard (b. 1843 in Niemirów, d. 1917 in Kraków)—Polish painter, creator of historical and monumental scenes. He studied at the Kraków School of Fine Arts (under Władysław Łuszczkiewicz, Feliks Szynalewski, and Jan Matejko), and at art academies—in Munich from 1867 and in Vienna from 1868. Together with Witold Pruszkowski, he created murals based on cartoons by Władysław Łuszczkiewicz in the Church of the Nativity of the Lord and St. Bartholomew the Apostle in Kraków-Mogila. He exhibited his paintings at the Society of Friends of the Fine Arts in Kraków and the Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Warsaw.