GROUP SCENE IN A BAKERY

The almost monochromatic painterly study In a Bakery belongs to a cycle of Leopold Gottlieb’s works created in the 1920s, characterised by figurative composition filling up the surface of the picture. The painter chose this way to present circus folk, comedians, jugglers, fishermen, porters and fish vendours, as well as dining people (Juggler’s Fest I, 1922, Rest, 1925, At the Table, 1927). The subject of this work is the process of making baked goods. Despite being densely filled with human figures, the composition appears harmonious and static. Looking at the picture, we sense the bakers’ preoccupation with their work.

The artist displayed absolute mastery in softening the piece, executed predominantly in cold colours, with patches of yellows and pinks, which, alongside perspective, defines its spatiality. The figures are depicted in a fairly schematic fashion. Gottlieb constructed them with a soft clear and expressive line, smudged here and there by patches of colours. This manner of applying paint by smudging or even rubbing it into the surface produces a sfumato effect in the artist’s works, or a soft transition from dark to light sections, typical of Italian Renaissance Masters. Gottlieb’s oeuvre clearly owes its inspiration to early modern painting, while remaining utterly contemporary.