Teodor Axentowicz (1859 Brasov/Romania - 1938 Kraków), Lady with a ball mask

pastel, cardboard, 67 × 52.5 cm
Signed p. d.: T. Axentowicz

"Axentowicz's true passion as a painter was pastel portraiture; in this technique he became a true perfectionist. He drew the most graceful and beautiful women, stripped of their smiles beautiful ladies - "les belles femmes de la belle epoque", portraits inspired by the paintings of Giovanni Boldini and James Mc Neill Whistler. (...) Axentowicz's artistic legacy includes hundreds of pastel portraits of ladies closer to us today, radiating Parisian chic - beauties in ball gowns, adorned with sophisticated jewelry, shrouded in furs, wearing noble hats, holding fans, flowers, masks (...)."
S. Krzysztofowicz-Kozakowska, Ouevre Teodor Axentowicz, [in:] "Teodor Axentowicz 1859-1938" [cat. exhibition], Kraków 1998, pp. 12-13