Czesław (I. Zygmuntowicz) Wasilewski, *BY CARRIAGE THROUGH THE THAW*

50 x 80.2 cm - oil on canvas

signed lower right: Cz Wasilewski

Czesław Wasilewski (c. 1875 – Warsaw/Łódź 1946–47) was a Warsaw painter popular during the interwar period, known for works inspired by the paintings of Kossak, Brandt, Chełmoński, Wierusz-Kowalski, and Fałat. He was self-taught; although he enrolled in the Warsaw School of Fine Arts in 1911, no further details are known about his studies. He may have attended (1913–1917) the studio of Wojciech Kossak, for whom he later, in the early 1920s, prepared underpaintings for paintings. He participated in an exhibition in Lublin (1922) and exhibited at the Salons of Warsaw’s Zachęta (1925, 1926, 1927), in Katowice (1926), Częstochowa (1927), Gdynia (1929), Kalisz (1931), and Poznań (1928, 1931). He primarily painted numerous horse-drawn carriages, sleighs, hunting trips, travel accidents, lancers on patrol, moose, roe deer, and wild boars in the forest. He also created atmospheric landscapes, clearly inspired by the paintings of J. Chełmoński. Less frequently, he painted flowers and still lifes. He is identified with a painter named “Zygmuntowicz,” whose works have appeared on the art market since the 1930s. The initial “I.” or “F.” placed before this surname may suggest the first name Ignacy or Franciszek. S. Bołdok discussed the painter’s profile in more detail in the article “A Painter with Two Surnames” (Art and Business 1992, no. 7–8, pp. 48–49).