14 Tadeusz Makowski (1882 - 1932) Dancing Woman - a sketch for the painting "Fun in the Village", 1920 watercolour, ink/paper, 33 x 25.5 cm (dimensions in passe-partout window) Tadeusz Makowski's letter with the theme of a dancing woman as a sketch for the oil painting "Fun in the Village" (MNW) ID: 179843 Taxes and fees - In addition to the hammer price, the successful bidder agrees to pay us a buyer's premium on the hammer prices of each lot sold. On all lots we charge 20 % of the hammer price. Provenance private collection, Warsaw More information France Tadeusz Makowski had two faces. One was Paris, where he learned the new directions of painting and was looking for his own place. The second province, which provided him with subjects and allowed him to work in his own rhythm. It was in Breton villages and then in Overnia that he looked at the everyday life of the inhabitants. He was interested in a man engrossed in his occupation, freedom of conduct, unsubstantiated gesture. Around 1920, painting was born from such meetings, where the experience of modern art combined with sensitivity to the charm of rural life. Makowski arrived in Paris at the end of 1908, after studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. From Józef Mehoffer's studio there was an interest in decorativeity, and from Jan Stanisławski conviction about the importance of direct contact with nature. In France, he had to redefine his attitude toward painting. Cézanne's work became an important lesson for him, and then Cubism, which was known among others in the circle of Henri Le Fauconnier. He learned how to organize the image, extract the structure of objects and subdue the details of the whole. But he did not want geometry to obscure what he was most concerned with, the presence of man and the living character of the world around him. He kept his experiences, gradually moving away from cubistic discipline. An important change was the trip to Brittany in 1914, connected with the invitation of Władysław Ślewiński. The rural environment was conducive to return to observation, but it did not mean abandoning previous searches. Makowski was simplifying forms, looking for a clear silhouette and a clear layout of composition. He painted the residents of the province without salon elegance, focusing on their appearance and manner of being. In time, children were becoming more and more important, recognized with tenderness, but without easy sentimentalism. Later figures resembling wooden puppets did not appear suddenly, but they were preceded by years of study of the human face and movement of the body. When in the spring of 1918 the artist again wanted to go to Brittany, he did not receive the permission required by the military authorities. In June he went to Le Puy, living in the nearby Espaly in Overnia. He returned during his next summer stay until 1922. The mountainous landscape had tasks other than those known from the Atlantic. At first, he drew a lot, trying to capture the construction of the site and then limited the details by extracting the rhythm of larger forms. In this work, she continued to know about her construction lesson. At the same time, the province allowed him to approach people whose lives were far from Paris' art disputes. Visits to the museum in Le Puy were an important complement to these observations. Makowski was there looking at paintings of former Dutch masters, finding in their works a way of telling each other about everyday life. He was particularly concerned with genre painting, the ability to give meaning to the common situation, the character characteristics contained in a small gesture. His own experiences of rural life allowed him to understand the works he had seen better, and these made his eyes sharper. During this time, the peasant meal scenes show how fruitful this dialogue was. The dimmed bronzes revived the accents of red and white, and the simplicity of the performance left room for careful observation of man. The trace of these interests was preserved in the August 1919 record. Makowski described the country fun during which he watched the dancing bourrée, a local dance. Attention was drawn to the clear faces and movements of the participants, their laughter and freedom. The scene he saw was associated with old paintings: The Interior of Teniers with Bruegel's figurines. He also noted the need to remember the layout of groups and color relationships. Thus, it was not only a record of the custom, but also a memo by the painter, who already during the observation recognized the possibilities of the future image. He noticed that joy changes faces, bringing them closer to the children's caricature. A ridiculous deformity grew out of life here before it became a consciously applied artistic medium. This moment clearly reveals Makowski's distinctiveness. With modern art, he did not lose interest in former masters, and by studying their paintings, he sought confirmation of his own observations. The village was a place for him to discover behaviors that in painting could become particularly expressive. Increasing simplifications did not take away individuality, but allowed it to be mined more efficiently. This is how the artist's world developed, in which the seriousness of everyday life is adjacent to humor, and the mindfulness towards the model gradually opens the way of imagination. Presented sketch for the painting of "Fun in the countryside" from 1920 (from the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw) retains the directness of such a look. Raised hands and torn leg dancers focus attention on the energy of movement. Free stains of color and surrounding characters of handwriting give the work the intimate character of the painting note.