author: Xawery Dunikowski (1875, Krakow – 1964, Warsaw)
bronze, cast in 2017 after the original (1912–1914)
Signed on the lower right (on the left sleeve: Xawery Dunik[ows]k[i]
property of the Dom Pracy Twórczej in Radziejowice, inv. no. 501/OT-23/2017
cast acquired from the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko (2017)
The bust portrays Ludwik Solski (1855-1954, born Ludwik Napoleon Sosnowski), a remarkable stage actor (occasionally opera, film and radio), as well as director and theatre manager. During a career span of nearly 80 years, he played almost 1,000 roles in dramatic and comedic repertory, becoming an icon of Polish theatre.
The sculpture is a contemporary cast taken from the original in bronze, cast in 1914 in Piotr Seip’s workshop in Krakow, according to the plaster model made to Solski’s order. (One cast of this sculpture was owned by the actor – after World War II it was found by him in the debris of a Warsaw tenement located by Al. Jerozolimskie 31, where his flat was located, and now it can be found in the Polish Theatre in Warsaw.) It is a monumental, multiprofile (intended to be viewed from all sides) portrait sculpture, a half-length figure shown frontally, with the head sharply turned to the left, raised right arm holding draped garment against the chest, while left arm is bent at the elbow, held firmly away from the torso and resting on the hip. The depicted pose characterised by a theatrical gesture, together with the classicising robe and exaggerated facial expression with a gaze drifting into distance “[…] allow us – as stated by Aleksandra Melbechowska-Luty, a scholar of Dunikowski’s work – to perceive in this expressive portrait, personification of acting artistry, which was both a personal and professional attribute of Solski”. The meticulously modelled face pulses with light, refracted and reflected across strongly accentuated anatomical features: hollow eyes, a sharply profiled nose, prominent cheekbones, and a decisively defined jawline. The technique used for the face contrasts the big, smooth parts of the robe arranged in sharp, vertical planes. The subtlety with which the form and the beauty of the sinewy hand, with its slender fingers, are rendered is particularly striking.
Text: Elżbieta Charazińska
Editing: Beata Fiugajska
Photo: Piotr Ligier