Objects

Gottlieb portrayed Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935), a brigadier, commander, future Chief of State of Poland, several times. The earliest of these images was made in December 1914. It was a group portrait: Piłsudski surrounded by his closest staff, on horseback. The lithograph depicting Piłsudski on a redoubt (a kind of rampart) was based on a drawing made by Gottlieb probably in May or June 1916 in Volhynia. The drawing was most probably inspired by a photograph by an unknown author, taken in the circumstances of one of the largest and heaviest Legion battles – at Kostiuchnowka in Volhynia. | The portraitist's object of interest here is not only the portrayed, but also his surroundings: the military architecture which was built on the Volhynian front from the last days of 1915, in this case the so-called Piłsudski Redoubt. | AT