Sonia LEWITSKA (1882-1937), Poland in Fetters

woodcut, paper, 38 x 25 cm,
Signed on woodblock d.: La Pologne Enchainee, in pencil: Z. Lewitska.
State of preservation: minor traces of mold.


Sonia LEWITSKA (1882-1937)
Painter, wood engraver and illustrator originally from Podolia. She was a member of the École de Paris. She continued her painting studies begun privately in Zhytomyr and Kyiv from 1905 at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (where she became friends with R. Dufy) and with Jean Marchand, who later became her second husband. They occupied Renoir's former studio together, across the wall from Alicia Halicka. From 1910, she exhibited regularly. She joined the Section d'Or grouping (1912). She enjoyed the recognition of contemporary critics and gallerists (G. Apollinaire, B. Weill). She illustrated, among others, Gogol's Evenings at the Chutor (in her own translation) and Valery's The Serpent. Three boldly drawn from folklore, allegorical woodcuts relating to Poland's struggle for independence (1915) were her first works in this technique.