Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885 Warsaw - 1939 Jeziory in Polesia), Portrait of Zdzislaw Czermanski, 1926.

pastel, gray paper, 53.5 × 41.5 cm (light frame)
dated and signed p. d.: "1926/Ignacy Witkiewicz" description. l. d.: "NP/22,23" and p. d.: "T.B" in the rim

Provenance:
- private collection, Poland
- Polswissart Auction House, 2017.
- Collection of Zdzisław Czermanski, purchase from the artist

In 1926, Witkacy created a portrait of Zdzislaw Czermanski (1900 - 1970), an artist who became known primarily as an outstanding caricaturist. This image was done according to the rules established by Witkacy's one-man Portrait Company for the "B" type portrait. The rules stated that it was "a more characteristic type, but without the shadow of caricature. A more line work than the A. type, with some undercutting of characteristic features (...) The attitude to the model objective". From the abbreviated notes scrawled by Witkacy, we can also read that at the time the portrait was taken, he had not smoked for more than twenty days.
A drawn face with a well-defined chin, a narrow mouth curved in a slight smile, a gentle yet penetrating gaze - this is how the viewer sees the young Czermanski, then twenty-six years old. He has been immortalized in the uniform of a legionary with his medals pinned to the hem. This is because he fought during World War I first in the 1st and then in the 3rd infantry regiment of the Polish Legions. Captured, he managed to escape from captivity twice. He ended his military service with the rank of captain (S. Trzeciakowska, Creativity of Legion artists in the collection of the Army Museum in Bialystok, "Zeszyt Naukowy Muzeum Wojska", no. 20, 2007, pp. 151-152). This is an almost formal portrait, only in the background part Witkacy allowed the line to bear the characteristics of a more unbridled and dynamic. Czermanski was born in 1900 in Cracow ("Plastic Artists Index," 2008, p. 29). He initially pursued his artistic studies under Kazimierz Sichulski at the Lviv Industrial School (years 1922-1924). In 1925, he continued his studies in Paris, perfecting his technique under the tutelage of Fernand Léger. His satirical work appeared in magazines such as "Szczutek", "Wiadomości Literackie" and "Cyrulik Warszawski" ("Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Letters to his wife." Vol. 2: 1928-1931, Warsaw 2015, p. 490). He became famous especially for his caricatures of Józef Piłsudski included and published in the portfolio "Marszałek Piłsudski w 13 karykaturach", Paris 1931. The Marshal himself held Czermański's works in high esteem and had them hung on the walls in the Belvedere. As Waclawa Milewska wrote in her article: "...Czermanski had a great gift for getting to the essence of phenomena and capturing their dark sides in a caricaturized form. He used mild satire, in which there was no aggressiveness or brutality. These works could only evoke laughter, never anger." (W. Milewska, Piłsudski in Art. On some portraits and caricatures of Józef Piłsuski, "Accent. Literature and Art. Quarterly", no. 4 (150), Lublin 2017, p. 264). The Tatra Museum's collection, on the other hand, abounds in a number of caricatures on which Czermanski immortalized well-known personalities of Zakopane's literary and artistic community, including Witkacy himself (Fig. 2). This is not the only known caricature of the famous bohemian artist of the time. The second satirical work was published in "Literary News" in 1927 as an illustration to Emil Breiter's review of the novel "Farewell to Autumn" by Witkacy ("Literary News" 1927, no. 30, p. 3).