Eugène Zak

Wojciech and Ewa Fibak, Poland (by 1992)
Sale: Polswiss Art, Warsaw, 13 December 2009, lot 36
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Warsaw, National Gallery, Polish Painting in the Ewa and Wojciech Fibak Collection, 1992, illustrated in the catalogue
Warsaw, National Gallery, Eugeniusz Zak, 1884 - 1926, 2004, no. 71, illustrated in the catalogue (as dated 1914)

Artur Tanikowski, Eugeniusz Zak, Sejny, 2003, p. 117, fig. 117, illustrated (as dated circa 1914)

The canvas has been lined. There are some very fine vertical lines of the canvas's weave visible to the right side of the composition, which could be associated to the relining. The overall appearance of the work is very good and inspection under ultra-violet light reveals some spots of uneven fluorescence which appears to be inherent to the artist's pigments. The work is ready to hang. Presented in a decorative gilt frame with beige inner slip. Colours are brighter and more saturated than in the catalogue illustration.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Born in Belarus, Eugene Zak trained in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts under Jean Léon Gérôme and at the Académie Colarossi. Although often grouped with the École de Paris, his main influences are to be found in his numerous travels to Brittany and Italy. Zak was fascinated by the works of the Italian Old Masters and by those of Denis, Besnard and Gauguin, which had attracted to Brittany other Polish artist as well, including Mojżesz Kisling and Mela Muter. Most of all, Zak was attracted to Brittany’s untouched landscapes, which appeared to him removed from civilization. He subsequently became the first Polish 20th century revivalist of the idyllic landscape tradition.

Landscape with Sailors was painted circa 1914, when Zak lived in southern France. The beautiful and unspoiled landscapes of this region became the main subject in the artist’s oeuvre from this period.  Standing on the left are two men absorbed in a conversation. In front of them, hilly landscapes, a rural house on the mountain top and a ship crossing the sea. Time feels frozen, and the view depicted – with its flatness and pastel-colour palette - has an archaic feeling to it which takes the viewer back to a remote golden age.

In 1916 the artist and his wife settled down in Częstochowa, Poland, and joined the Polish Expressionists, later renamed the Formists in 1919. When back in Paris from Poland, Zak’s painting changed dramatically towards more melancholic subjects drawing from Picasso’s Blue and Rose period.