Jan Styka (1858-1925), Garden at the Manor House on Karsch Hill 1890
Oil on canvas, 38.5 x 46.5 cm (frame) 30 x 22cm
Signed and dated lower left corner. On the back a sticker regarding authorship, time and place. The painter's name was also engraved at the bottom of the frame, now almost illegible.
The painting is framed in a richly carved and gilded wooden frame with four cartouches.
State of preservation: very good (the canvas from the back glued with cardboard).
The Karsch Manor House in Kielce is a 19th century mansion located on the so-called Karsch Hill, on today's Jana Pawla II Street. The building was designed by architect Aleksander Dunin-Borkowski as part of a small mansion with an outbuilding, stables and a garden. Over time, the property passed into the hands of the Karsch family, from which the mansion took its current name.
In 1888-1890 Jan Styka lived here and had his studio. It was in Kielce that he created some of the decorations for St. Adalbert's Church in Kielce, and his stay at the manor house came at an important moment in his career, just before the later success of "Panorama Raclawicka" and the monumental "Golgotha." There is a plaque commemorating the artist on the facade of the building today.
The manor house itself is one of the few surviving examples of urban court architecture in Kielce. Although it has fallen into neglect over the years and has been rebuilt many times, it remains an important place associated with the history of the city and the memory of Jan Styka.
[KP]
