The photograph was taken by Juliusz Dutkiewicz in his photographic studio in Kołomyia in the 1870s or 1880s . Little is known about the photographer himself. He operated his studio successively in Suceava (Polish: Suczawa), Ivano-Frankivsk (Polish: Stanisławów), Lviv (Polish: Lwów), and Kołomyia, engaging in both indoor and outdoor photography. Some of his most renowned works include photographs documenting the landscapes and people of Hucul Region and Pokuttya (Polish: Pokucie). Dutkiewicz featured photographs of folk types from these areas, alongside landscapes of the Chornohora (Polish: Czarnohora), at the 1880 "Ethnographic Exhibition of Pokuttya" in Kołomyia.
The photograph shows a brigade of five Jewish house painters with their working tools, posing inside the studio. The oldest masters in age and rank stand at the top of the steps of wooden ladders. These are two men with beards, dressed in working clothes: trousers, shirts, waistcoats and kaftans; they have yarmulkes on their heads and cigarettes in their mouths. The man on the left is holding a paintbrush and a wooden slat (painting ruler) in his raised hands, the man on the right is pointing with his right hand to the left of the frame. Between them, on the lowest steps of both ladders, a young boy is standing, probably an apprentice. Like the masters, he is wearing working trousers, a shirt and an unbuttoned kaftan, with a waistcoat underneath. The boy has no headgear. He is holding a wooden slat (ruler) in his left hand and a small paintbrush in his right hand. In the foreground, two journeymen are standing directly on the floor. On the left, supported by a low, two-step ladder, stands a young man with a painting stencil in his hands. He is wearing trousers, a white shirt and waistcoat, and a cap with a brim. While the man on the right is dressed similarly, he has no headgear. He holds his left hand on a wooden slat (ruler) resting on the floor. Two wicker baskets with painting utensils and tools, buckets, a tub (vat) and a rolled-up painting stencil with cut-out patterns, which is used for decorative paintings, were placed on the wooden floor of the photographic studio. A painted canvas screen with floral motifs is laid out in the background. On the right side of the frame, there is also a fragment of another screen, representing the equipment of Dutkiewicz's photographic studio. The genre scene depicted in the photograph illustrates the hierarchical structure of craft workshops, where journeymen and apprentices were trained under the supervision of a senior master. The former already had the skills necessary for independent work. The second group had the lowest position and performed auxiliary activities.
