Works

His small-scale, skilfully painted landscape compositions depicting rural scenes from the borderlands brought him remarkable international success; which he often depicted in winter settings and enriched with expressive portrayals of horses and the motif of the wolf—exotic to the West—against a frosty landscape. His paintings, deeply rooted in native themes with appropriate staffage, depicted genre scenes from small settlements and towns, often rendered with humour and a touch of irony (The Arrival of the Post Coach, An Accident on the Journey), numerous Kraków weddings, departures for and returns from hunts, and above all, dramatic wolf attacks on people travelling by sledge and horses driven mad with fear, were hugely successful.

Historical and battle scenes played a lesser role in his artistic output, as did portraiture, which he undertook only sporadically. In 1903, the artist undertook a short journey to North Africa, which inspired oriental themes in his work, alongside the emergence of exotic Arabic subjects (Bedouins by the Well, With a War Order – Morocco, In Front of the Mosque). Gradually, however, the painter’s artistry began to lose its depth, and his work, best known from exhibitions in Germany, was encountered in his homeland mainly through reproductions published in magazines. From 1869 onwards, his works were also exhibited periodically at the ‘Zachęta’, where he held two solo exhibitions (1908, 1935). Wierusz-Kowalski was, above all, a participant in numerous international exhibitions, although outside Warsaw he also exhibited his paintings in Kraków, Lviv and Poznań. He won prizes and medals in Munich, Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Saint Louis and Louisville. He was also awarded a Grand Gold Medal in 1904 at the national exhibition in Lviv. His paintings were acquired by the largest European and American galleries and museums. The artist’s popularity, which remained undiminished for decades, meant that towards the end of his life he was producing works on a massive scale, almost in a craft-like manner. In his studio, he employed young painters to produce copies of his most famous works, which he then finished himself and signed with his own name. According to the German art historian Hans-Peter Bühler, the artist presumably signed some of his paintings with the pseudonym ‘Jan Konarski’.