Pentecost Holiday Fair near Cracow

1906

Witold Wojtkiewicz Polish, 1879-1909

Not On View

Pentecost Holiday Fair near Cracow: 1 of Collection Gallery

Pentecost Holiday Fair near Cracow: 2 of Collection Gallery

Pentecost Holiday Fair near Cracow: 3 of Collection Gallery

Pentecost Holiday Fair near Cracow: 4 of Collection Gallery

Pentecost Holiday Fair near Cracow: 5 of Collection Gallery

Pentecost Holiday Fair near Cracow: 6 of Collection Gallery

Image Only Image + Details All Images High Resolution TIFF Metadata

About the Artwork

Please note: This section is empty
Markings

Please note: This section is empty

This section contains information about signatures, inscriptions and/or markings an object may have.
Provenance

Please note: This section is empty

Provenance is a record of an object's ownership. We are continually researching and updating this information to show a more accurate record and to ensure that this object was ethically and legally obtained.

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance page
Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Suggest Feedback
Published References

Please note: This section is empty

We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Suggest Feedback
Catalogue Raisonné

Please note: This section is empty

A catalogue raisonné is an annotated listing of artworks created by an artist across different media.
Credit Line for Reproduction

Please note: This section is empty

The credit line includes information about the object, such as the artist, title, date, and medium. Also listed is its ownership, the manner in which it was acquired, and its accession number. This information must be cited alongside the object whenever it is shown or reproduced.
Audio Transcript

Please note: This section is empty

About the Artwork

During his brief career, Witold Wojtkiewicz returned often to the motifs related to the world of circus and masquerade. Likely based on sketches executed on site, this work details a holiday fair in the countryside near Kraków, Poland, but with fantastical elements typical of the artist.

The panorama of the fairgrounds extends almost to the top edge of the painting, providing a nearly bird’s-eye view. The grounds are populated by adults and children, one cartoonish horse, and two canopied structures, at least one of them recognizable as a carousel. A short, portly woman shown in profile and her bowlegged companion, holding a cane and facing the viewer with an empty gaze, hint at some hidden narrative. The misshapen couple, unattended children, and the animal point to an imagined world rather than one grounded in observation alone.

The painting was acquired from the artist by the renowned French writer André Gide in 1907 and exhibited the same year at a solo exhibition at Galerie Druet in Paris.

Title Pentecost Holiday Fair near Cracow

Artwork Date 1906

Artist Witold Wojtkiewicz

Life Dates 1879-1909

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Polish

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Tempera and/or oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 38 inches × 39 1/2 inches × 7/8 inches (96.5 × 100.3 × 2.2 cm) Framed: 38 3/4 × 40 1/4 × 1 1/2 inches (98.4 × 102.2 × 3.8 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Modern Art to 1970

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Friends of Polish Art Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 1988.63

Markings

Signed Signed, lower right: Witold Wojtkiewicz | Kraków 1906

Marks Marked, two paper exhibition labels, damaged, overlapping: Adres... | dzielo Phingsten in Bielany bei Krakau | ....tempera cena 1000 | Towarzystwo Przyjacjól Sztuk Pieknych w K [rakowie]

Provenance

ca. 1907, collection of André Gide (Paris, France);
by descent to his daughter, Catherine Gide;
by descent, the son of Catherine Gide;
Jean-Pierre Bosc (Paris, France);
(Alain Clairet, Paris, France);
1988-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

Suggest Feedback

Published References

Exposition Witold Wojtkiewicz. Exh. cat., Galerie E. Druet. Paris, 1907, n.p., cat. 1 [preface by André Gide].

Pieńkowski, S. "Witold Wojtkiewicz," KtosY: Miesięcznik illustrowany poświęcony szutkom plastycznym, teatrowi, muzyce i literaturze, 1, 6 (May 1914): (ill. on cover).

Domańska, B. Witold Wojtkiewicz 1879-1909. Exh. cat., Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie. Krakow, 1989, vol. 2, no. 29, p. 47 [as Carrousel and in unknown location].

Ficowski, J. W sierocińcu świata: Rzecz o Witoldzie Wojtkiewiczu. Warsaw, 1993, p. 71, (ill. on the cover).

Ficowski, J. Witold Wojtkiewicz. Łowicz, 1996, p. 52, 201 (ill.).

Bulletin of the DIA 65, no. 2/3 (1989): p. 15, (fig. 10, repr.).

Grabska , E. “Lʼarrière-garde de lʼavant-garde: la colonie artistique polonaise à Paris 1905-1914,” in Gérard Monnier and José Vovelle, eds., Un art sans frontiers:

L’internationalisation des arts en Europe (1900-1950). Paris, 1995, pp. 79-93 (ill.).

Juszczak, W. Wojtkiewicz i nowa sztuka. Warsaw, 1965; Kraków, 2000, p. 112 (ill.).

Kossowska, I. “Akwarele, pastele, rysunki, litograﬁe,” in Elżbieta Charazińska et al., Ceremonie: Witold Wojtkiewicz 1879–1909. Exh. cat., Muzeum Narodowe. Warsaw, 2004, p. 113, under no. 37.

Charazinska, E., et al. Witold Wojtkiewicz 1879-1909: Une fable polonaise. Exh. cat., Musée de Grenoble. Grenoble, 2004, p. 37 [as Carrousel; not in exhibition].

Chudzicka, D. “Reconsidering Witold Wojtkiewicz’s Pentecost Holiday Fair near Kraków,” Bulletin of the DIA 95, no. 1 (2021): pp. 40-51; (ill. fig. 1), p. 40; (details figs. 7-9) p. 45; (fig. 10), p. 46 [label from back].

Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.

Suggest Feedback

Catalogue Raisoneé

Please note: This section is empty

Credit Line for Reproduction

Witold Wojtkiewicz, Pentecost Holiday Fair near Cracow, 1906, tempera and/or oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Friends of Polish Art Fund, 1988.63.