The cathedral in winter

Jan Gintowt-Dziewałtowski (1904–1980), who lived in Vilnius in the interwar years, showed his work at exhibitions of the Independent Artists’ Society in 1934 and 1935. The society had been set up in 1932 to promote traditional and conservative artistic values, and was the antithesis to the Vilnius Society of Artists which encouraged an innovative approach. The townscape The cathedral in winter, painted in white gouache on coloured paper, renders the effect of a snow-covered city. It was based on a photograph taken by the famous Vilnius photographer Jan Bułhak (1876–1950). The cathedral is seen from the side, and not from the front. It is surrounded by fir trees, as if it were in the country and not in the centre of a city. Like many photographers of pictorialism, Bułhak was fascinated by winter views and the graphic effects of snow and ice, and therefore he photographed the snow-covered building among trees, thus creating a fabulous Christmas view, which Gintowt-Dziewałtowski simply reproduced in a different technique.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: “Vilnius. Topophilia. Views of Vilnius from the collection of the law firm Ellex Valiunas”, 5 October – 26 November 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (curator Laima Laučkaitė)

Jan Gintowt-Dziewałtowski (1904–1980), who lived in Vilnius in the interwar years, showed his work at exhibitions of the Independent Artists’ Society in 1934 and 1935. The society had been set up in 1932 to promote traditional and conservative artistic values, and was the antithesis to the Vilnius Society of Artists which encouraged an innovative approach. The townscape The cathedral in winter, painted in white gouache on coloured paper, renders the effect of a snow-covered city. It was based on a photograph taken by the famous Vilnius photographer Jan Bułhak (1876–1950). The cathedral is seen from the side, and not from the front. It is surrounded by fir trees, as if it were in the country and not in the centre of a city. Like many photographers of pictorialism, Bułhak was fascinated by winter views and the graphic effects of snow and ice, and therefore he photographed the snow-covered building among trees, thus creating a fabulous Christmas view, which Gintowt-Dziewałtowski simply reproduced in a different technique.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: “Vilnius. Topophilia. Views of Vilnius from the collection of the law firm Ellex Valiunas”, 5 October – 26 November 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (curator Laima Laučkaitė)