Promenade, II 1931

Zygmunt Waliszewski made this watercolor painting, Promenade, II, sometime before his death in 1936. The figures here, especially the woman with the parasol, evoke the leisure activities of the upper classes. Waliszewski was Polish. He traveled widely in Europe. He took inspiration from many different sources, including modernist painting and traditional Polish folk art. These interests led to the creation of a unique style, characterized by flattened perspectives, bold color, and simple outlines. Note the way the artist has used an economy of means to represent this scene. The sketch-like quality of this painting makes us think about the ways that artists in the early 20th century were beginning to question the traditional institutions of art. It has an unfinished, spontaneous quality that would have been unusual in earlier eras. To understand this painting fully, we would need to research the artist's life, his other works, and the cultural context in which he was working. We might want to study his relationship to the École de Paris, or to examine the interwar avant-garde in Poland. The meaning of this painting is contingent on the social and institutional context in which it was created and displayed.