Walery Brochocki, SUNDAY AFTER CHURCH. ACCIDENT ON THE ROAD, 1873

41.0 x 65.0cm - oil, canvas glued on plywood signed p.d.: W. Brochocki 1873.

On the left slat of the frame a fragment of a sticker (print, typescript): 9.4 | Museum of Art | [EX] HIBITION | [p] aintings; on g. strip (white chalk): Property of Mr. & Mrs. Sylwin Strakacz; also, on bottom strip, sticker of Warsaw auction house.



Provenance:

- Collection of Sylwin Strakacz (1892-1973) in Los Angeles;

- collection of Zbigniew Mikulski (1925-2017) in Sankt Gallen, Switzerland;

- As of 2019, in a private collection in Poland.



Compare:

- Accident on the Road, Tygodnik Ilustrowany, R. 1874, no. 356, p. 279.



Painting exhibited, reproduced and mentioned:

- Nineteenth Century Polish Paintings. A Loan Exhibition The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 16 II - 19 III 1944, il. 11, p. 17 (Sunday after Church);

- Irena Piotrowska, Polish landscape painting, "The Polish Review," 1944, T. IV, no. 12, pp. 8-9, il. (Sunday after Church);

- American Collector: Biweekly for Dealers and Collectors, T. XIII, 1944, p. 5;

- N. Pichłacz, M. Skowronska, A. Kielczynska, M. Kardas (eds.), Returns. The Swiss Collection of Zbigniew Mikulski. Exhibition catalog, Take Care Foundation, 24 May - 31 August 2019, Bydgoszcz 2019, p. 111, il.



From 1869 to 1977, the artist studied in Munich, where he quickly gained popularity among the public and art dealers. This was cemented by the medal Brochocki received in Vienna at the Universal Exhibition in 1873, which is when he also created the offered work. The artist worked on this composition for a longer period of time, as evidenced by another version of it reproduced in a woodcut in the pages of "Tygodnik Ilustrowany" in 1874.



Sunday after Church was in the collection of Sylwin Strakacz, Ignacy Paderewski's secretary, composer and diplomat. Along with his collection, the painting made its way to the United States, where it was exhibited at the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Critics, analyzing the offered canvas, pointed out its author's connection with the Barbizonians, and stressed that he was an excellent colorist.

Walery Brochocki (Wloclawek 1847 - Warsaw 1923) - painter, author of landscapes and city views. He began his artistic studies at the Warsaw Drawing Class under Ch. Breslauer and continued from 1869 at the Munich Academy under A. Lier and H. An-schütz. He stayed in Munich for a long time, had a joint studio with A. Kotsis and Z. Sidorowicz, and participated in exhibitions there. His paintings were popular, especially when his painting was awarded a medal at the Vienna Universal Exhibition in 1873. In 1877 he went to Paris, where he painted, showing Barbizon influences, landscapes from the Fontaienbleau area. In 1878, he traveled to Algiers to paint panoramas commissioned by the French government. In 1888 he settled permanently in Warsaw, from where he made several more trips to Lithuania, Podolia and Bessarabia.