Dimensions: 70 x 50 cm
Signed and dated l.d.: 'Marian Mróz | 1954 [?]'.
Biography
Spent his childhood and youth in Cracow. He studied painting at the State School of Artistic Industry (since 1927 the State School of Decorative Arts and Artistic Industry) in Cracow and at Ludwika Mehoffer's Free School of Painting and Drawing in Cracow, where the group of teachers at the time included Jerzy Fedkowicz, Zbigniew Pronaszko, Jan Rubczak, Henryk Gotlib.
From at least 1934, he was already active as an independent artist. He worked in oil technique painting on cardboard, plywood, drywall or canvas. He was fascinated by maritime subjects as well as the Tatra landscape, to which he repeatedly returned. He captured views of his hometown Tuchow and the surrounding area, and in time also of Gorlice, where his brother lived. He successfully created portraits painted against the background of the local landscape (this is how, in 1936, he portrayed, among others, highlander Stanislaw Budz-Lepsioka "Mroz" the most famous bagpiper and shepherd from the Mała Łąka Valley) or painted restrained, classical studio images.
He spent the years 1945-47 mostly on the Coast in the circle of artists associated with the fledgling State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdansk (Sopot). At that time he belonged to the Professional Union of Polish Artists of the Gdańsk District. He participated in the First Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture and Graphics of Artists of the Coast (May 1946). Marian Mroz's works from this period are in the collections of the Museum of the City of Gdynia ("UNRRA Ship in the Port of Gdynia", 1945, "Gneisenau", 1946, "Gdynia", 1946), and in the National Maritime Museum in Gdansk: " Port of Gdynia," 1946, "Gneisenau in the Port of Gdynia," 1946). Another painting by Marian Mroz depicting a view of the same German ship Gneisenau was presented by the Gdynia city authorities to Vice Admiral Winograd during the ceremony of handing over Soviet Navy ships to the Polish authorities in April 1946.
In 1947 Marian Mróz returned to his hometown and his work was dominated by Tatra landscapes and views of other areas emotionally close to him. Over time, he gained the interest of private collectors at home (Tarnów, Tuchów, Gorlice) and abroad, mainly among the American Polish community. Painting in his own recognizable style, he also undertook to make copies of sacred paintings, including an image of the Virgin Mary of Tuchow or a portrait of Pope John XXIII. He did this type of work, among others, for St. James Church in Tuchow (they can be seen in the side altars of the nave) and the St. Benedict Chapel there.
Marian Mroz's original, original paintings, in addition to the museums in Gdansk and Gdynia mentioned above, have in their collections: District Museum in Tarnów ("Landscape from Polesie," 1938, "View of Tuchow," 1942, "Portrait of Roma," 1946), Regional Museum PTTK in Gorlice ("Gorlice from Korczak Street"- deposit) and City Museum in Tuchow.
