PORTRAIT OF JÓZEF MICKIEWICZ

The old man seated in the painting dating from 1929 is Józef Mickiewicz, the youngest son of Adam Mickiewicz and Celina née Szymanowska. Józef barely knew his parents who died when he was still a child. He spent his childhood in the care of guardians, travelling between Warsaw and Paris. He displayed musical talent in his youth and developed a passion for the piano. Nevertheless, after completing his studies in chemistry, he took a job as a clerk at the Main Board of the Paris Charitable Society, devoting himself to social matters.

The portrait shows an elderly man whose tired face almost blends with his jacket painted in tones of ash grey broken by flat patches of yellowish light. This depiction stands in stark contrast to the romantic pathos associated with the Mickiewicz family, frequently observed in depictions of Józef’s father. The person portrayed here seems modest – a man ordinary to a fault. His deep-set blue grey eyes, the only distinct feature that enlivens the composition, have a pensive look, apparently unseeing.

Using a narrow palette of ash greys, blurred siennas and umbras, Gottlieb portrays a man who, having severed ties with the family, chose his own path – a low-key mission to help others. The artist’s biographer, André Salmon, wrote about his portraiture: “Above all, as a painter of psychological portraits, Gottlieb found himself from the very beginning among the young masters – exponents of the Polish school that emerged unexpectedly and independently of what was known before. This matter concerns not only the artist’s spiritual personality but – I dare say – Poland’s very future as well.”

Małgorzata Stolarska-Fronia