1.Marian Łańcucki (1910 — 2003)

Marian Łańcucki (1910 — 2003)

Landscape with a View of the Śnieżne Kotły, 1947–1950 (?)
Oil on canvas, 50 × 40 cm (with frame 62 × 51.8 cm)
Signature in the lower right corner: Marcin Łańcucki .

He was a Polish painter and stage designer, born in Lviv on 14 August 1910. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in 1937. After the end of World War II, he moved to Opole. He worked as a set designer at the Municipal Theatre in Opole from October 1945 to June 1947 (from October to December 1945 he created nine stage designs; in 1946 — thirty-one set designs or decorations; and in 1947, until June — fifteen stage designs). In 1945 he participated in creating the structure of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers (ZPAP) in Opole. From 1947 he lived in Wrocław, where in the years 1947–1948 he took a teaching position at the Secondary School of Fine Arts in Wrocław, and later also became a lecturer at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław. He died on 19 September 2003, probably in Wrocław.

Works in the collections of:
– the Museum of Opole Silesia in Opole
– the Museum in Racibórz
– private collections.

The painting depicts a mountain landscape with a view of the Śnieżne Kotły in the western range of the Karkonosze Mountains. The picture field is rectangular in shape, with a vertical composition. In the foreground, located in the lower part of the painting, there is a pile of stones descending softly into the depth of a ravine. The middle ground features two similarly positioned rocks with sharp, broken edges that form the shape of a “V” and open the view onto the background. The rocks serve as a coloristic dominant and create a contrast for the entire scene. In the background, the wall of the cirque is visible, sculpted by numerous gullies and channels that slide down to the bottom of the basin. On the horizon line, which runs diagonally toward the upper left corner of the painting, a mountain shelter is depicted, distinguished by its characteristic tall tower covered with a hipped roof. The sky is monochromatic, filled with masses of clouds in light grey and white tones. The color palette is warm, dominated by light browns and yellows. Dark browns appear in the middle ground. The paint is applied in glazes, and in the gullies and rock profiles — in a linear manner. The lighting is natural daylight, falling from above and focused on the foreground and background.
The depiction of the mountain shelter in this form indicates the painter’s strong familiarity with Karkonosze iconography. An identical framing of the scene appears in a photograph by Kurt Hielscher, published in the album Deutschland, released in Berlin in 1925.