Sielos akimis: Vincento Slendzinskio (1838-1909) gyvenimas ir kūryba

LTRengiant šią monografiją susipažinta su dailininko kūriniais Lietuvos ir užsienio muziejų ekspozicijose ir uždarose saugyklose, bažnyčiose, naudotasi įvairia rankraštine ir vaizdine archyvų medžiaga. Gausiausia jos dalis yra Slendzinskių galerijoje Balstogėje. Be aliejinių paveikslų, čia saugoma keletas eskizams skirtų albumų, kuriuos Vincentas pildė įvairiais laikotarpiais2. Juose ne tik piešiniai, paveikslų eskizai, bet ir jau nutapytų paveikslų nuotraukos ar jų piešiniai, tarp kurių pramaišiui įsiterpia ir žodinės kūrybos bandymai. Galerijos archyve saugomi įvairiausi dailininko užrašai, skirtingų dailės technikų ir pagalbinių medžiagų receptai3, šeimos dokumentai bei nuotraukos. Pasinaudota ir Lietuvos nacionaliniame dailės muziejuje saugomais dar trimis Vincento Slendzinskio albumais su įvairaus laikotarpio piešiniais bei užrašais4. Rengiant monografiją, mėginta rasti visus išlikusius kūrinius ir juos suklasifikuoti. Tuo tikslu parengtas dailininko tapybos darbų ir piešinių katalogas, į kurį įtraukti ir nežinia kur esantys bibliografijoje paminėti kūriniai. Katalogo pabaigoje pateikiamas ir nežinotų ar nenustatytų paveikslų, tapytų bažnyčioms, sąrašas. [p. 6].

ENThis monograph explores the life and work of Wincenty Leopold Sleńdziński, a Lithuanian painter from the second half of the 19th century, who is relatively well-known in Lithuania and Poland. Sleńdziński, a prominent member of the Sleńdziński dynasty of painters, has had his works analyzed in various individual articles in both Lithuania and Poland. However, his entire creative career has never been comprehensively covered in a single book. Previous segments of his life, known to date, have not provided a complete understanding of the artist as a person. This monograph reconstructs his creative biography using the family’s legacy, which was taken from Vilnius in 1945 and is now housed in the Sleńdziński Gallery in Białystok (Galeria im. Sleńdzińskich w Białymstoku). This includes archival documents, photographs, sketch albums, and literary texts. Additional sources for this reconstruction are the drawings and sketch albums held at the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, as well as Sleńdziński’s paintings found in various museums in Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine. The monograph, in addition to the required elements of a scientific book, consists of three main sections: the first part illuminates the artist’s life, the second part discusses his works of art, and the third part, the appendices, contains his original writings, including maxims, poems, and vaudevilles.The first section comprises the chapters “The Beginning,” “In Exile,” and “In the Hometown.” It explores the painter’s origins and family history. The artist’s grandfather, Marcin Sleńdziński, was a respected merchant in Vilnius who served as burgomaster for some time, and his father, Aleksander Sleńdziński (1803–1878), was a painter known for portraits and genre scenes. Based on church registers of marriages, births, and baptisms, Wincenty Sleńdziński’s date of birth is specified as January 2, 1838. Wincenty lived with his parents for a time in Bartonys (Borciany) and later in the Bajoriškiai Manor near Raudondvaris (now Kaunas District), where his father Aleksander found employment with Benedykt Emanuel Tyszkiewicz (18011866). Eventually, the family settled in Vilnius.  The artistic and literary atmosphere of Vilnius, imbued with romantic memories of ancient Lithuania, profoundly shaped the future artist’s worldview. Together with his father, Wincenty participated in musical evenings at Stanisław Moniuszko’s salon, where he received piano and violin lessons. His first art teacher was undoubtedly his father, along with the painter Kanuty Rusiecki, who held drawing classes at the Vilnius Noblemen’s Institute (Instytut Szlachecki), which Wincenty likely attended with his friend Michał Elwiro Andriolli (1836–1893). Having graduated from gymnasium in 1855, both friends travelled to Moscow to continue their art studies at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (Московское училище живописи, ваяния и зодчества). The school was renowned for its traditions of realist art but was less constrained by the academicist painting canons that prevailed at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts (Императорская Академия художеств), under whose aegis the Moscow school operated.Sleńdziński spent his summers and sometimes winters in Vilnius, where he painted his first notable works. These early paintings, such as “Old Woman Threading a Needle” (1860) and “Self-Portrait with a Hat” (1862), established his reputation as a painter of psychological portraits already during his student years. Additionally, he created artworks for Catholic churches in Vilnius (“St. Casimir”, 1863) and Lower Novgorod (Нижний Новгород). After a few years of studies, Andriolli was pleased to attain the status of a freelance artist and returned to Vilnius, where he actively participated in the national liberation movement. Sleńdziński did not complete his studies either. In 1863, upon returning to Vilnius, he was arrested for his connections with the rebels and exiled for twenty years to Knyaginin, a bleak town in the Lower Novgorod Governorate. We learn about this period of the artist’s exile from his sketch albums, which contain not only drawings but also poems, maxims, and vaudevilles (Sleńdziński’s original texts are presented in the appendices at the end of the book). These various sketches and writings provide insight into the artist’s inner world, his feelings during exile, and his moral stances. He managed to make ends meet by taking on random jobs, including several commissions for paintings and creating some landscapes. In 1867, likely through the intervention of the new empress Maria Fyodorovna, patron of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, who had purchased a painting by Sleńdziński in Moscow, he was awarded the title of 3rd-class artist and permitted to relocate to Kharkiv for the remainder of his exile. [...].