Still life with a portrait

Zygmunt Waliszewski's "Still life with a portrait," painted in 1916, offers a glimpse into the early period of an artist who would become a significant figure in Polish modernism. Born in Saint Petersburg and raised in Tbilisi, Waliszewski began his artistic journey at a young age, holding his first exhibition in 1908. This painting, created when he was just 19, predates his formal studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and his pivotal time in Paris, where he would embrace the Kapist movement. Even at this early stage, one can sense the nascent influences that would shape his later work, particularly his fascination with avant-garde movements like Russian Futurism, which he encountered during visits to Moscow and through a prolific Futurist group in Tbilisi. While specific details about this particular still life are scarce, it likely reflects his early experimentation before he fully immersed himself in copying old masters at the Louvre and engaging with the works of Cézanne, van Gogh, and Matisse. It's a testament to his early engagement with artistic expression, foreshadowing a career marked by portraits, figural compositions, and grotesque scenes.