Wadisaw Œlewiñski: Spatial Flatness and Symbolic Innuendos

Wadisaw Œlewiñski - Rough Sea at Belle-Ile - 1904 - Oil on canvas, 58 x 82 cm - Muzeum Narodowe, Cracow (click photo for larger image)Polish painter Wadisaw Œlewiñski (1856-1918) was born into the gentry and administered his estate in Poland before traveling to Paris in 1888. Once there he studied at the Académie Colarossi where he met Paul Gauguin. The impression this encounter made on him—and Gauguin's encouragement—prompted Œlewiñski to dedicate himself to art. He submitted to Gauguin's artistic and personal influence, spending time with him in Paris and, from 1889, in Pont-Aven and Le Pouldu in Brittany. For Wadisaw Œlewiñski, the decisive was set by the spatial flatness and symbolic innuendos of Gauguin and the Nabis. His art was also not without Impressionist roots.