Ladyslaus Bakalowicz

Wladyslaw Bakalowicz (who signed most of his works as Ladislaus Bakalowicz) has become one of Eastern European’s most collectible artists.

His paintings hang in museums in Warsaw, Krakow and Radom, and in major galleries and private collections throughout the world.

Bakalowicz studied at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts from 1849 to 1854. In 1863 he left for France; and settled permanently in Paris, became a French citizen and married actress Wiktoryna Szymanowska. (They had one son, Stefan, who also became a painter.)

Early in his career Bakalowicz painted portraits, genre scenes, and historical canvases on Polish themes. These earlier works include King Zygmunt August and Barbara Radziwill; Prince Karol Radziwill receiving a delegation of Bar Confederates, and Bazaar Outside the Warsaw Iron Gates.

His most representative works, however, are genre scenes drawn from sixteenth- and seventeenth- century French history, especially the court of Henry III Valois. Executed in oil, pastel, or watercolor, these small-scale compositions reveal Bakalowicz's fondness for the realistic rendering of details of costume and interior. Sources foe the artist's treatments can be found in Dutch Masters and in the contemporary works of Ernest Meissonier, influences that are particularly evident,for example, in Lord Buckingham at the Court of Louis XIII, and Episode from St. Bartholomewis Night.

Bakalowicz's work was well received by the French and internationally, and he exhibited at Paris salons (1865,1883); in provincial cities Lyon, Bordeaux, Reims, Rouen, and Nice, as well as London, Brussels, Berlin, Vienna and New York.

The Roger Yost Gallery of Fine Arts is proud to offer the works of this distinguished artist.