Subačiaus Street by the Missionaries’ Church in Vilnius

Józef Bałzukiewicz (1866–1915) came from the artistic Bałzukiewicz family of Vilnius. At the turn of the 20th century, he worked as a teacher, and from 1912 he looked after the Technical Drawing and Draughtsmanship Classes in Vilnius. This private crafts school, which taught in Polish, was founded by the philanthropist Józef Montwiłł. The school attracted patriotic Polish artists, and was oriented towards Catholic values.

In Bałzukiewicz’s picture Subačiaus Street by the Missionaries’ Church in Vilnius, he not only showed a detail of the street with the church hall and the rotunda-shaped porch of the Missionaries’ Church, but also recreated a scene from 18th-century life: a nobleman walks along the street in a home-made coat tied with a traditional silk sash, a gallant cavalry officer walks arm-in-arm with a girl, townsmen chat quietly, and beggars beg for alms. The artist reconstructed the dress and the bearing of people at that time. The watercolour illustrates characteristic 20th-century retrospectivism, a return to Vilnius’ past, and the golden age when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was free and not part of the Russian Empire.

Text author Laima Laučkaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: “Académie de Vilna. Vilnius Drawing School (1866–1915)”, 5 October – 26 November 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (curator Jolanta Širkaitė). Published: Académie de Vilna: Vilniaus piešimo mokykla 1866-1915 / Vilnius drawing school: Exhibition Catalogue, Nacionalinė dailės galerija 2017 m. 4 d. - lapkričio 26 d., compiled by Jolanta Širkaitė, Vilnius: Lietuvos kultūros tyrimų institutas, 2017, p. 93.

Józef Bałzukiewicz (1866–1915) came from the artistic Bałzukiewicz family of Vilnius. At the turn of the 20th century, he worked as a teacher, and from 1912 he looked after the Technical Drawing and Draughtsmanship Classes in Vilnius. This private crafts school, which taught in Polish, was founded by the philanthropist Józef Montwiłł. The school attracted patriotic Polish artists, and was oriented towards Catholic values.

In Bałzukiewicz’s picture Subačiaus Street by the Missionaries’ Church in Vilnius, he not only showed a detail of the street with the church hall and the rotunda-shaped porch of the Missionaries’ Church, but also recreated a scene from 18th-century life: a nobleman walks along the street in a home-made coat tied with a traditional silk sash, a gallant cavalry officer walks arm-in-arm with a girl, townsmen chat quietly, and beggars beg for alms. The artist reconstructed the dress and the bearing of people at that time. The watercolour illustrates characteristic 20th-century retrospectivism, a return to Vilnius’ past, and the golden age when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was free and not part of the Russian Empire.

Text author Laima Laučkaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: “Académie de Vilna. Vilnius Drawing School (1866–1915)”, 5 October – 26 November 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (curator Jolanta Širkaitė). Published: Académie de Vilna: Vilniaus piešimo mokykla 1866-1915 / Vilnius drawing school: Exhibition Catalogue, Nacionalinė dailės galerija 2017 m. 4 d. - lapkričio 26 d., compiled by Jolanta Širkaitė, Vilnius: Lietuvos kultūros tyrimų institutas, 2017, p. 93.