Władysław Jarocki

Ukrainian-born Polish painter Władysław Jarocki first studied architecture at Lemberg, now Lviv, and from 1902-06 art in Kraków, before moving to Paris and attending the Academie Julian. In 1911 a scholarship allowed him a study trip to Italy. In World War I he served in the Austrian Army and was then involved as an architect in the reconstruction of the Polish region of Galicia. He was eventually named professor and taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków from 1921-39. In addition to landscapes and portraits, Jarocki also painted religious subjects and produced cartoons.

His predominant motifs were located in the Podhale region and the Tatra Mountains, and he often used the Hutsuls, an ethno-cultural group who for centuries have inhabited the Carpathian Mountains, mainly in Ukraine and in the northern extremity of Romania, for his themes.

The Autoportret na nartach (Self-Portrait on Skis) was painted as early as 1909 and is in the National Museum of Wrocław. The Portrait of the Polish Poet G. Zulawski in the Mountains could be identified from the illustration in the 1928 art catalog. Żuławski (1874-1915) was a Polish writer, philosopher, mountaineer, and patriot. Both paintings are probably in oil on canvas.