{"id":18823,"date":"2018-08-23T00:55:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T23:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=18823"},"modified":"2025-09-28T19:06:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T18:06:47","slug":"the-art-of-boleslaw-biegas-1877-1954","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2018\/08\/23\/the-art-of-boleslaw-biegas-1877-1954\/","title":{"rendered":"The art of Boles\u0142aw Biegas (1877\u20131954)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/univers.jpg\" alt=\"univers.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Univers de la tendresse (1918).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This Polish artist came to my attention recently while looking for something in a book about Surrealist art. As before, the web has its uses especially when it comes to discovering more about artists such as Biegas who were never prominent enough to be given more than a passing mention in art histories. Biegas isn&#8217;t really a Surrealist, however, although Apollinaire apparently liked some of his stylised sculptures. The paintings Biegas produced from around 1920 separate into two surprisingly different groups: semi-abstract portraits rather like the later wholly abstract works of Franti\u0161ek Kupka, and the Symbolist-styled nocturnes featured here. I naturally prefer the latter, not least because some of them nod to the dark cypresses and islands that populate many of Arnold B\u00f6cklin&#8217;s paintings, but the portraits and sculptures are often very good as well. There&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/biegas.pl\/en\/paintings-gallery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an artist&#8217;s website<\/a> although the reproductions there are small and watermarked.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/byron.jpg\" alt=\"byron.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Lord Byron (1919).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/chopin.jpg\" alt=\"chopin.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Chopin (1919).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/grotto.jpg\" alt=\"grotto.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Grotto of the Temple of Secrets (1924).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/chateau.jpg\" alt=\"chateau.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Ch\u00e2teau des Tr\u00e9sors (c. 1925).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/chateau2.jpg\" alt=\"chateau2.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Ch\u00e2teau enchant\u00e9 (c. 1925\u20131926).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/chateau3.jpg\" alt=\"chateau3.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Ch\u00e2teau de la petite d\u00e9esse solitaire.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/fleurs.jpg\" alt=\"fleurs.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Fleurs enchant\u00e9es.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/scene.jpg\" alt=\"scene.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Sc\u00e8ne fantastique.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/skaly.jpg\" alt=\"skaly.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Scales of Mystery.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/temple.jpg\" alt=\"temple.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Temple des noces d&#8217;amour ou Nocturne.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Previously on { feuilleton }<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2008\/05\/20\/the-art-of-jacek-malczewski-1854-1929\/\">The art of Jacek Malczewski, 1854\u20131929<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Univers de la tendresse (1918). This Polish artist came to my attention recently while looking for something in a book about Surrealist art. As before, the web has its uses especially when it comes to discovering more about artists such as Biegas who were never prominent enough to be given more than a passing mention &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2018\/08\/23\/the-art-of-boleslaw-biegas-1877-1954\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The art of Boles\u0142aw Biegas (1877\u20131954)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,44,45],"tags":[267,9663],"class_list":["post-18823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-painting","category-symbolists","tag-arnold-bocklin","tag-boleslaw-biegas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-4TB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}