Title of Product:

Henryk Rodakowski- a painter of smart and chic portraits- the European artistic highest class

Image of the product:

Name of Author(s): Irena Kossowska

Name of Producer: Net periodic: “culture.pl”

Language/s of Product: Polish

Website of the product: www.culture.pl/pl/culture/artykuly/os_rodakowski_henryk

Target Group: General audience

Overall Evaluation: excellent

Availability of community:
Newsgroup

Objectives & Structure:
Aspects to consider:
- The students learn the specific artistic grounds of the author, his engagement in the progress of the trend of the European class level within the Polish Romanticism
- The students follow up and recognize the formal rules of the realistic portrait, and its splendored composition
- The Epoch of the Polish Romanticism with its most smart tendencies and the universalism
- Students shape their code of recognition of the extra added values as regards the observed masterpieces, possibly in a formula of a concise analysis

Description of contents:
Henryk Rodakowski (1825- 1894) was an active painter in Liev, Cracow and Paris. He represented the trend within the Romanticism based on the academic conduct. He came from a rich family of lawyers, and during his staying abroad he cooperated with the environment connected with the patriotic emigrants belonging to the “Hotel Lambert” political orientation. After Jan Matejko’s death he was chosen the director of the Society of Friends of Art and the chairman of the National Museum’s Committee. His works were presented first of all in galleries in Paris.
Rodakowski belongs to the most eminent painters of XIX century, together with Matejko and Michalowski he was constituting the fundaments of the Polish art in equality to the European artistic highest class. The special mastery was reached by Rodakowski in the domain of portraying, his portraits were decisively deepened as regards the psychological matter, and including the realism’s grounds. They reflected a whole elaboration of physical features and crannies of the models. His portraits were needless to say perfectly composed, although they were economical in the aspect of the expression’s mediums. The personages were modelled with shy subtlety, the tones of his colours were remarkably smart, and finally the expressions of the neatness and elegance of his masterpieces were strengthened by the delicate external layer of the paint set on the portraits.
In the early Vienna period, Rodakowski preferred the watercolour with a sentimental expression, that was kept within the styled convention of biedermeier. Later, he adapted the academic esthetical canon, in where the main part of his elaborations was represented by the historic and quasi historic compositions. The artist’s repertoire was rooted in the French art’s conveniences, the style’s icon still remaining the academic splendour, smartness and majesty. The aesthetics of his portraits was spreading further- that meant also outside a presented personage. A figure of his model was smoothly joined with the neutral dark background, the light was quite strong and revealing face and hands of his models. That way was emphasised the effect of the colours’ counterpoint.
His climax achievement as regards the above considerations is “The Portrait of Mother”. He used to take care of the intimate atmosphere of the pictures (especially- portraits) and the representative output of his characters, sometimes for the smartness’ effect adjoining to the whole monumental columns, banisters, cornices, curtains, etc.

Evaluation and Comments:

Description of how the website can be used with the students::
- The website demonstrates the artist’s professionalism of the workshop, the magical and esthetical valorisation of his model and the smart, elaborated usage of the whole surface of the composition.

Comments::
- The students develop their knowledge by the matter of persuasive analysis that systemise the plots appearing within the artist’s bright and monumental conduct.

Evaluation Date: 01.09.2008.

Name of teacher: Michał Seroczyński

Name of School: CKU Sopot

Country: Poland

Subjects Taught: Fine Arts