The Tatra Mountains have always fascinated, delighted and bewildered everyone with their power. They have threatened us with their volatility and have punished daredevils severely who have given up their caution. Ultimately, they have been a real artistic challenge for all those who wished to tame them and include all that has always fallen outside any frames on a flat piece of cloth or paper.

Jacek Malczewski is a painter of the largest number of self-portraits in the history of Polish art. As was joked in a Green Balloon’s [Zielony Balonik] cabaret show in Jama Michalika, the artist represented himself “Once in a flat hat, once without that | Once as a professor, once as a lord (…) | Once in a sweater, and with a panther | With a tail or without one.”

Jacek Malczewski’s palette is one of the several painting palettes preserved in a collection of memorabilia of famous artists associated with the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. It served for oil painting. Its large size, streamlined, heart-like shape and thumb hole, as well as its small weight – resulting from the type of wood used – made it possible to conveniently hold the palette on the forearm and support it by propping it against the side.

Jacek Malczewski, one of the most outstanding Polish Symbolism painters left a rich artistic legacy. The work of Malczewski is extremely extensive and multi-layered. His paintings present his personal desires as well as the national tragedy and traditions. Mythology intertwined with religion, folk motifs mixed with tale themes.

The presented drawing is the first student work by Jacek Malczewski to be noticed and awarded. He received the first prize and the amount of 30 guilders from the management of the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts. At that time, Malczewski studied under Władysław Łuszczkiewicz and Feliks Szynalewski, with Jan Matejko also exerting a tremendous influence on the artistic development of the young adept.

The tradition of Polish Christmas nativity scenes has its roots in Italian nativity plays, which were brought to our land by the Franciscan Order. Initially, they were organised in the side altars of churches, and comprised figures of Baby Jesus, Mary, Saint Joseph, the shepherds and the Three Kings...