The cross by the road

From 1908 to 1913, A. Międzybłocki studied at Kraków Academy of Art under Teodor Axentowicz and Leon Wyczółkowski. He abandoned art during the First World War and the immediate postwar years. It is therefore little surprise that The cross by the road is one of the first pictures he painted after the war, after he took up residence in Vilnius in 1922. It was painted under the influence of the artistic spirit prevailing at the beginning of the 20th century, though later the effects of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism became evident in his work. The subject of this picture is associated not only with the recent First World War, but also with the Symbolist sensitivity of the early years of the century, the contemplation of eternity and the vulnerability of human life, and Secessionism’s favoured silhouettes of stylised trees and vegetation in the dusk.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE WORLD OF LANDSCAPES II (2013). Compiler and author Nijolė Tumėnienė
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. 283.

From 1908 to 1913, A. Międzybłocki studied at Kraków Academy of Art under Teodor Axentowicz and Leon Wyczółkowski. He abandoned art during the First World War and the immediate postwar years. It is therefore little surprise that The cross by the road is one of the first pictures he painted after the war, after he took up residence in Vilnius in 1922. It was painted under the influence of the artistic spirit prevailing at the beginning of the 20th century, though later the effects of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism became evident in his work. The subject of this picture is associated not only with the recent First World War, but also with the Symbolist sensitivity of the early years of the century, the contemplation of eternity and the vulnerability of human life, and Secessionism’s favoured silhouettes of stylised trees and vegetation in the dusk.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE WORLD OF LANDSCAPES II (2013). Compiler and author Nijolė Tumėnienė
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. 283.