Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885 Warsaw - 1939 Jeziory in Polesia), Portrait of Janina Turowska-Leszczynska, 1932

pastel, paper, 61 × 47 cm in light passe-partout
signed at the bottom: 1932/ Witky IX/(T.B1) : N II (?) NP.
The painting is accompanied by an expert opinion of Witkacologist Dr. Anna Żakiewicz (curator and author of many exhibitions and publications about Witkacy, curator of the Witkacy collection at the National Museum in Warsaw).
"A very racy and furiously straightforwardly alluring demonic girl" (Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, "Tumor Mózgowicz," in: his "Selected Works," vol. IV, Warsaw 1985, p. 232, quoted in. Małgorzata Czyńska, "Witkacy's Women. A metaphysical harem", Karkow 2016, p. 217) - with such words Witkacy described one of his models and mistresses - Janina Turowska-Leszczynska. The couple met in 1928, in Zakopane. At first, Witkacy adored Janina's older sister Felicia. In time, his attention was drawn to the beautiful blue-eyed Janina, whom he called Inka. He sometimes mentioned his chosen one in letters to his wife, with whom he had an open relationship. Many people tried to dissuade the young Janina from acquaintance with the artist, including her mother, sister and uncle. However, their relationship continued. The couple often met at Turowski's home. During such meetings, more portraits and photos immortalizing the figure of Inka were created. At some point in Janina's life, Witkacy's friend Jan Leszczynski appeared. Infatuated with Witkacy's chosen one, he proposes to her in 1933 and is accepted, both by the girl herself and her relatives. The couple gets married rather quickly. After the wedding, the young couple resides in Leszczynski's family estate in Tarnowiec, to which Inka brings all of Witkacy's pastels, and there were more than 100 of them. The wedding ceremony took place in great secrecy from Witkacy. As expected, the news of the pair of friends' wedding and the lack of information about it strongly agitated the artist. Only a few years later they renewed their acquaintance. Witkacy was even to become godfather to their son Jas. The ceremonial baptism never took place, the ceremony was held hastily, already in the atmosphere of the impending outbreak of war. Fortunately, even before these events, Witkacy and Leszczynski drew up the so-called "artistic will", in which they declared to take care of the legacy of each of them in case of death. Jan Leszczynski lived up to his word. When he left his estate in Tarnowiec in 1944, one of the carts was filled with his friend's paintings. Witkacy portrayed his lover Inka many times, painting her images in various types. The 1932 portrait of the blue-eyed Janina, presented at the auction, was painted by Witkacy in Type B - "A type more characteristic, but without the shadow of caricature. A more line work than Type A with some shade of characteristic features, which does not exclude "prettiness" in female portraits. Relationship to the model objective." The description of the work includes the annotations: NP and Nπ, indicating that the artist was not drinking or smoking at the time of painting the portrait.