Mi-Carême in Paris (Crowd).

Painted in 1907, the same year Wojtkiewicz exhibited at the prestigious Galerie Druet in Paris — an exhibition arranged by none other than André Gide — 'Mi-Carême in Paris (Crowd)' captures the mid-Lent carnival celebrations that briefly transformed the French capital into a sea of masks and revelry. Mi-Carême was a beloved Parisian tradition in which costumed processions and festive crowds flooded the streets, and Wojtkiewicz seizes on this spectacle with the darkly expressive sensibility that defined his short career. Working within the currents of Expressionism and Symbolism, he transforms a joyful street scene into something more unsettling — crowds in Wojtkiewicz's hands rarely feel simply celebratory; they carry an undercurrent of strangeness, even menace.

This work reflects a pivotal moment in Wojtkiewicz's life: his Paris sojourn brought him international recognition just as his health was deteriorating from a congenital heart defect that would claim his life only two years later, in 1909, at age twenty-nine. The carnival crowd — masked, anonymous, swirling — may embody his fascination with performance, illusion, and the thin membrane between joy and despair. His style, often described as a precursor to Surrealism, lends even festive gatherings a dreamlike, slightly ominous quality.