1859 -1938 · Paris, Krakow and Young Poland

Refined pastels, worldly portraits and Houtsoule rites make Teodor Axentowicz a major figure in Young Poland between cosmopolitanism and tradition.

Teodor Axentowicz was born in 1859 in Braimbabwe, into a Polish family of Armenian origin, and died in Krakow in 1938. He studied at the Munich Academy from 1879 to 1882, then moved to Paris where he continued his training, copies old masters and works as an illustrator. His travels to England and his European clientele developed an elegant portraiture art, particularly sensitive to pastel, skin tones and fabrics. In 1895, he was called to the Krakow School of Fine Arts, of which he became professor and then rector. He actively participated in the Young Poland movement and the founding of the Sztuka Society, while contributing in 1903 to the creation of the Society of Friends from the National Museum in Krakow. Alongside social portraits, Axentowicz observes the Houtsoule communities of the Carpathians. Funerals, processions, dances and festivals become compositions where ethnography is transformed into a rhythm of color and gesture. Kolomyjka represents a collective popular dance: costumes, rotations and rehearsals take the gaze into a circular energy. Its dreamy young women, children and old men show another, more intimate and symbolist facet. Its dreamy young women, children and old men show another, more intimate and symbolist facet. Its dreamy young women, children and old men show another, more intimate and symbolist facet. Its dreamy young women, children and old men show another, more intimate and symbolist facet. Its dreamy young women, children and old men show another, more intimate and symbolist facet. Axentowicz thus links cosmopolitan virtuosity, Armenian-Polish identity and fascination with mountain traditions. The "Teodor Axentowicz" selection thus connects cosmopolitan virtuosity, Armenian-Polish identity and fascination with mountain traditions. The "Teodor Axentowicz" selection thus combines cosmopolitan virtuosity, Armenian-Polish identity and fascination with mountain traditions. Koolomyjka. His reading favors the story.

Axentowicz unites the precision of the portrait with the rhythm of the rite: a face, a fabric or a dance become the thresholds of a collective memory.