Witkacy's Portrait of Two Children: Crown Jewel of Tatra Museum

For its 125th anniversary, the Tatra Museum got themselves a very special present: a painting by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, „Portrait of two children – Krystyna and Ludwik Fischer”.

The work is unique in several respects. First of all, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, aka Witkacy, is one of the most famous Polish artist of the 20th c. Secondly, it's a rare treat to own an A-category portrait, in a hyperrealistic style, on a background including surrealistic features (Witkacy defined rules for five different categories of portraits, labelled with letters A to E, each with its own characteristics and price).

And thirdly, the painting is even more exceptional considering the lack of interest Witkiewicz had regarding portreting children and the fact that there are to this day, very little double-portraits known painted by him.

But the painintg was not an ordinary order: the father of the two children was Witkiewicz's friend. Until this day, the masterpiece was exhbitied only twice since it remained the property of the Fisher family during 89 years.

The Fishcer family were very attached to Zakopane, and so was the grand-father of the children, Ferdinand Tabeau. He hold the first pharmacy of Zakopane in the 19th C. which was situated on Krupówki, where the actual n°19 is situated. He is also the one to have financed the expeditions of the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski to the Antipodes in which he was joined by Witkiewicz.

The museum bought the piece at 250.000 zl, and it tis a crown jewel in a collection that has now assembled more than 80 works by Witkiewicz. The purchase was financed by the Malopolskie Voivodship.