Aleksander Władysław Malecki (1836 Masłów -1900 Szydłowiec), Alpine idyll, 1878.

oil, canvas, 66 × 125 cm
Signed and dated l. d.: "W.Malecki/1878"

Provenance:
- Collection of Alfred and Maria Tarsca, Berkeley, Calif;
- collection of Kristina Eva Ehrenfeucht
- private collection, Poland

Alfred Tarski (1901 Warsaw - 1983 Berkeley)
- Prominent Polish logician, member of the Lviv-Warsaw School. Creator of, among other things, the theory of models and the semantic definition of truth. He and his wife, Maria, were collectors of Polish art. Over the years they amassed a rich collection of works. In 1939, the family emigrated to the United States, where Tarski taught and conducted mathematical research at the University of California at Berkeley until his death in 1983.

"(...) the second Munich period, closing in 1870-1880, was one of the most prosperous in the artist's life, and his fully-formed art found public and critical acclaim, reflected in medals and awards at numerous foreign salons. Malecki's painting during this period is dominated by landscape compositions (...). The artist traveled and wandered artistically in Bavaria, visiting the Alps and Tyrol."
A. Oborny, "Poet of the Landscape," [in:] Wladyslaw Alexander Malecki. 1836 - 1900. catalog of monographic exhibition. Kielce 1999, p. 29.

"A separate subject in the artist's landscapes are mountains, especially landscapes of the Bavarian Alps and Tyrol. He painted them during his stay in Bavaria, but also based on the drawings he brought with him and after his return to the country, still selling them abroad. (...) Malecki, like other artists, used plein-air notes, selecting motifs and juxtaposing different frames in new compositional arrangements; he did not expose the anxiety and horror of the mountains, in his own way seeking a romantic mood. His experience of dealing with the paintings of Munich landscape painters such as the oft-mentioned E. Schleich and C. L. Rottman and Wojciech Gerson perpetuated Malecki's propensity for personal perception of nature in its alpine aspect. (...) in mountain oil paintings, characterized by color, light-shadow and luministic qualities, giving the impression of enclosed space with a clearly changing way of painting and interpreting mountain views. These paintings, as well as some works from the 1980s, challenge the popular opinion that Malecki used a relatively narrow color range. A significant enrichment of it occurred in the 1980s and early 1990s, which is why it is surprising that there was so little press coverage of his work at that time." A. Oborny, "Poet of the Landscape," [in:] Wladyslaw Alexander Malecki. 1836-1900. catalog of a monographic exhibition. Kielce 1999, pp. 46-47.