Symbolistic portrait of a girl with bible was executed by Wlastimil Hofman (1881 Praque - 1970 Szklarska Porêba in Poland), renowned Polish painter -symbolist, one of the more popular painters of the interwar and postwar years.

Hofman was a representative of Young Polish Symbolism and influenced by Jacek Malczewski. His subjects were mainly religious and mythological scenes. He became popular through depictions of the Madonna, children and angels in rural surroundings. He also created portraits. He remained uninfluenced by the modernist styles of the 20th century.

From 1896 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków under Jacek Malczewski. In 1899 he went to Paris to continue his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts. He had the first exhibition of his pictures in 1902 in the artists´ association Sztuka, further exhibitions followed in Munich, Amsterdam, Rome, Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Warsaw.

In 1907 he became the first Pole to become a member of the Vienna Secession. Between 1914 and 1920 Hofman lived in Prague and Paris, but then returned to Kraków in 1921, where he owned a house and studio. Around this time, also under the influence of Jacek Malczewski, he changed his name to the Polish form Wlastimil Hofman.

Hofman was married to a Jewish woman. That is why he fled with her in 1939 from the National Socialists via the Soviet Union and Turkey to Palestine. In 1946 he returned to Poland, where he met his second wife, also a Jew, with whom he retired in 1947 to Szklarska Porêba in the Silesian Giant Mountains. In 1961 he was awarded the Cross of the Order of Polish Revival.

Literature: Vollmer II, 1955, 467; ThB XVII, 1924, 283 s ; Toman I, 1947.

Inscription: signed and dated 1933 upper left

Technique: framed oil on wood, covered from back with cardboard.

Measurements: unframed w 14" x h 21 2/3" (35,5 x 55 cm), framed w 17 1/8" x h 25" (43,5 x 63,5 cm)

Condition: in very good condition.