  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 Krakw, 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 Andre 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.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Tempera and/or oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 38 × 39 1/2 × 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
  
  
  Copyright
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