Menu toggle
Navigation

Roman Kochanowski (1857-1945) - the last “Münchener” from Poland

Roman Kochanowski with his son Roman Junior in his Munich atelier, around 1903, photographer unknown

Mediathek Sorted

Media library
  • Roman Kochanowski with his son Roman Junior - Roman Kochanowski with his son Roman Junior in his Munich atelier, around 1903, photographer unknown, 13 x 18 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Landschaft - Roman Kochanowski, Landschaft, 1879, oil on canvas, 115 x 156 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Der Abend - Roman Kochanowski, Der Abend, 1879, oil on canvas, 62 x 100 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Aus der Gegend von Krakau - Roman Kochanowski, Aus der Gegend von Krakau, 1886, oil on canvas, 211 x 117 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Winterliche Landschaft - Roman Kochanowski, Winterliche Landschaft, 1886, 74 x 119 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Landschaft bei Krakau - Roman Kochanowski, Landschaft bei Krakau, 1886, oil on canvas, 33 x 54.7 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Dorflandschaft [in winter] - Roman Kochanowski, Dorflandschaft [im Winter], 1896, oil on paper, 102 x 29 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Dorflandschaft [mit Weiden] - Roman Kochanowski, Dorflandschaft [mit Weiden], 1896, oil on paper, 17.7 x 23 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Heuschober - Roman Kochanowski, Heuschober, 1896, oil on paper, 15 x 23 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Dorflandschaft mit Gänsen - Roman Kochanowski, Dorflandschaft mit Gänsen, 1896, archive photo
  • Roman Kochanowski, Landschaft mit Kühen - Roman Kochanowski, Landschaft mit Kühen, 1899, oil on canvas, 20 x 30.5 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Porträt des Vaters - Roman Kochanowski, Porträt des Vaters, ca. 1920, oil on canvas,  23 x 15.5 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Trembowla - Roman Kochanowski, Trembowla, 1890-1900, drawing, pencil on paper, 14 x 22 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski Junior, before 1910 - Roman Kochanowski Junior, before 1910, gallery photo, 17.8 x 18 cm, photographer: Atelier Gebrüder Lützel, Munich
  • Roman Kochanowski, ca. 1890 - Roman Kochanowski, ca. 1890, gallery photo, 10.8 x 6.5 cm, photographer: Franz Hanfstaengl, Munich
  • Roman Kochanowski’s letter to the magistrate Freising - Roman Kochanowski’s letter to the magistrate Freising dated 5 September 1896, relates to his son Roman, born in 1894, first and fourth page, with the artist’s signature, 18 x 22.6 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, page from a sketch book - Roman Kochanowski, page from a sketch book with a team of oxen, one ox lying down and one ox on the wagon, pencil on paper, 7.3 x 23 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, page from a sketch book - Roman Kochanowski, page from a sketch book showing four figures, pencil on paper, 8.4 x 15.7 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, page from a sketch book - Roman Kochanowski, page from a sketch book showing a peasant’s horse and carriage in motion, pencil on paper, 15 x 11 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, page from a sketch book - Roman Kochanowski, page from a sketch book showing two women, a flute player and a peasant’s horse and carriage, pencil on paper, 14.3 x 18.7 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Engelsberg [Bavaria] - Roman Kochanowski, Engelsberg [Bavaria], photo, photographic paper on board, 14.5 x 19.5 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Wieliczka [near Kraków] - Roman Kochanowski, Wieliczka [near Kraków], photo, photographic paper on board, 14.5 x 19.5 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Das Schloss von Trembowla - Roman Kochanowski, Das Schloss von Trembowla, photo, photographic paper on board, 14.5 x 19.5 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Trees at the waterside - Roman Kochanowski, Trees at the waterside, photo, photographic paper on board, 23.5 x 17.3 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Girl - Roman Kochanowski, Girl, fan leaf, oil on mahogany, 27 x 8.5 cm
  • Envelope addressed to Roman Kochanowski - Envelope addressed to Roman Kochanowski, Sender: Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski, 12 August 1913, 11 x 13.7 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Landscape with peasant woman - 15.	Roman Kochanowski, Landscape with peasant woman, 1887, copperplate on paper, 23 x 15 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, two fan leaves - Roman Kochanowski, two fan leaves, drafts, oil on paper, 28.7 x 26.4 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, illustrations - Roman Kochanowski, illustrations, handwriting sample and sketch of a figure, drafts, pen and ink on paper, 20.8 x 22 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, illustrations - Roman Kochanowski, illustrations, Hunter with a dog and a man’s head, drafts, pen and ink on paper, 20.6 x 29.5 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, illustration - Roman Kochanowski, illustration, draft, pen and ink on board, 30 x 23 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Girl on the shore of a lake - Roman Kochanowski, Girl on the shore of a lake, cover page, draft, black chalk on board, 32 x 23.6 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Two women in a landscape - Roman Kochanowski, Two women in a landscape, 1887, own technique, board, 25.6 x 24 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Seascape with sailing ship in a roadstead - Roman Kochanowski, Seascape with sailing ship in a roadstead, photo, photographic paper on board, 28.5 x 42.3 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Vase - Roman Kochanowski, Vase, draft, oil on paper, 19.5 x 26.5 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, Historical scene - Roman Kochanowski, Historical scene, illustration, black pen on paper, 28 x 35.5 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski, cover page of the Kraków magazine “Świat” - Roman Kochanowski, cover page of the Kraków magazine “Świat”, draft, black pen on paper, 32 x 23.2 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski in his atelier - Roman Kochanowski in front of the easel in his atelier, photo, 20.6 x 13.5 cm, photographer unknown
  • Working outdoors - Roman Kochanowski working outdoors, photo, 12.8 x 17.8 cm, photographer unknown
  • Roman Kochanowski, Landscape - Roman Kochanowski, Landscape, photo, 8.2 x 32.2 cm (template for a painting)
  • Daily entries  - Daily entries in Roman Kochanowski’s notebook, 14 x 8.3 cm
  • The artist’s sketch book - The artist’s sketch book, 20.4 x 16.3 cm
  • Roman Kochanowski’s grave - Roman Kochanowski’s grave, resting place in the forest cemetery in Munich, 2015
Roman Kochanowski with his son Roman Junior in his Munich atelier, around 1903, photographer unknown
Roman Kochanowski with his son Roman Junior in his Munich atelier, around 1903, photographer unknown

Kochanowski’s palette was sparingly reduced to earthy tones and neutral shades. Only seldom can a smudge of red, white or blue be found between the green, the brown and the grey. Even when the artist uses a light green in his cheerful vernal landscapes, he does not allow them to be lit by full sunlight and he does not dramatise them with shadow contrasts. Kochanowski avoided portraying extreme conditions of nature. His pictures do not show sundrenched meadows, or a wood slumbering under a blanket of snow or a sky coloured the deep red of dusk. However, some of his works do have a formal component which lend them a certain disquiet. This relates to the way in which the colour is applied, which is done in short, strong strokes running in several directions,  and in the restless, expressive lines of the trunks and branches of trees and of the clouds. Occasionally, the painting surface seems to vibrate slightly or to tremble somewhat in the wind, a trait which makes the artist resemble Camil Corot, who, however, was a lot more subtle and idealised reality more.

Stanisław Przybyszewski[12], who was impressed by Kochanowski’s paintings, wrote about him saying that he was a “great poet of the true soul of Polish landscape”.[13] These lofty words accurately describe the meaning of Roman Kochanowski’s painting, a man who knew like few others how to capture the essence and the mood of a landscape. His work is correctly identified with the landscape body of work that brought him fame and recognition. At the same time, it should be remembered that his legacy also includes many portraits and a few still lifes, including pictures of flowers.

Another of the artist’s passions was photography, an art form which was extremely popular with many artists at the end of the 19th century. Many even gave up the brush in favour of the camera. But almost everybody made use of the possibilities that photography offered them for their creative work. Roman Kochanowski exploited both advantages of the medium – as a form of artistic expression, where he particularly appreciated the design options. In his collections, which are housed in the Suwałki District Museum (Muzeum Okręgowe w Suwałkach), there are a number of photographs showing artistic qualities. The artist captured trees, cliffs and landscape formations on the plate. He was particularly interested in that fragment which represented the uniqueness, when seen close up, of that which otherwise seemed usual and familiar. With that in mind, he also experimented with mirrored copies by developing the same pictures in sepia and black and white.

Despite all this, however, Kochanowski remained a painter.

 

[12] Stanisław Przybyszewski (1868–1927), author, dramatist, poet, novelist and publicist. Lived in Munich as the representative of Polish decadence from 1906 to 1918 and was part of the Polish artists’ colony.

[13] Stanisław Przybyszewski, [in:] “Dziennik poznański”, 1915, No. 262, p. 3.