Subačiaus Street by the Missionaries’ Church in Vilnius

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.

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.

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.

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.