In a Jewish tavern

The Vilnius-based artist Aleksander Józef Sleńdziński (1803–1878), the first in a dynasty of artists, studied at Vilnius University under Jan Rustem, and acquired from his teacher a predilection for drawing the everyday life of ordinary people. His favourite subjects were peasants, beggars and the colourful Jewish community who made up a large part of the population of Vilnius at the time. His fellow artist Adam Szemesz compared Sleńdziński in an article to David Teniers the Younger, the famous 17th-century Flemish painter of streets and taverns. According to its meticulous detail, this drawing by Sleńdziński of the interior of a tavern could be from his early period. The artist recorded a scene that was common for the time: a group of noisy revellers crowd around a table in a simply furnished wooden room, next to barrels stocked with food, and are entertained by a violinist. A curious dog sits nearby, next to a table at which the innkeeper’s wife counts the day’s takings; and the owner looks on, ready to serve his clients. These scenes recording episodes of everyday life showed that the list of themes and subject matter was expanding, leading artists to examine more squalid areas.

Text author Rūta Janonienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album RES PUBLICA (2018). Compiler and author Rūta Janonienė

The Vilnius-based artist Aleksander Józef Sleńdziński (1803–1878), the first in a dynasty of artists, studied at Vilnius University under Jan Rustem, and acquired from his teacher a predilection for drawing the everyday life of ordinary people. His favourite subjects were peasants, beggars and the colourful Jewish community who made up a large part of the population of Vilnius at the time. His fellow artist Adam Szemesz compared Sleńdziński in an article to David Teniers the Younger, the famous 17th-century Flemish painter of streets and taverns. According to its meticulous detail, this drawing by Sleńdziński of the interior of a tavern could be from his early period. The artist recorded a scene that was common for the time: a group of noisy revellers crowd around a table in a simply furnished wooden room, next to barrels stocked with food, and are entertained by a violinist. A curious dog sits nearby, next to a table at which the innkeeper’s wife counts the day’s takings; and the owner looks on, ready to serve his clients. These scenes recording episodes of everyday life showed that the list of themes and subject matter was expanding, leading artists to examine more squalid areas.

Text author Rūta Janonienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album RES PUBLICA (2018). Compiler and author Rūta Janonienė