Ferdynand Ruszczyc
Old apple trees
The painting was created in Ruszczyc's native Bohdanów (today Bahdanau in Belarus). Local landscape was taken through the prism of emotion and mood. The picture depicts gnarled old apple-trees blanched by human effort on greasy black soil. The path is leading to the black edge, an abyss. It is a somber and dark end with little sunlight through the branches in upper left - hope. Two boughs joined together by force with a metal brace is an allegory of restrained human nature. Another tree, twisted as in a spasm, obstructs the path. The artist has the power of the forces of nature subject to cyclical changes, the power of the elements that determine human existence.
Just as other notable Polish symbolists, Ruszczyc concentrated on the breakthrough moments. The old trees is another attempt to prove that nature, subject to cyclical changes, still dominates the man.
Apple trees, repeatedly drawn and painted by Ruszczyc, were also intended to be part of the triptych entitled Life, as they evoke existential reflection. Their convulsive, twisted, bare shapes are expression of existential pain of mingled human life and the beauty of this pain. In a way a it is symbolic illustration of drama of aging and transience. The trees are present in the artist's sketchbook from April of 1900. He completed the work on the painting in October that same year and signed F.Ruszczyc / Bohdanów 00 on the bottom left of the canvas.
The distinctive expression of the painting, saturated colors and rich textures, are among the most original achievements of Polish modernism.
Just as other notable Polish symbolists, Ruszczyc concentrated on the breakthrough moments. The old trees is another attempt to prove that nature, subject to cyclical changes, still dominates the man.
Apple trees, repeatedly drawn and painted by Ruszczyc, were also intended to be part of the triptych entitled Life, as they evoke existential reflection. Their convulsive, twisted, bare shapes are expression of existential pain of mingled human life and the beauty of this pain. In a way a it is symbolic illustration of drama of aging and transience. The trees are present in the artist's sketchbook from April of 1900. He completed the work on the painting in October that same year and signed F.Ruszczyc / Bohdanów 00 on the bottom left of the canvas.
The distinctive expression of the painting, saturated colors and rich textures, are among the most original achievements of Polish modernism.
oil on canvas, 1900, 85 × 165 cm (33.5 × 65 in), inventory number MP 394, on permanent display in the Gallery of 19th century art, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie (MNW)
© Marcin Latka
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