Objects

Portrait photograph of an old Jewish woman with a brush in her hand

The photograph was most likely taken by Juliusz Dutkiewicz in his photographic studio in Kołomyia in the 1870s or 1880s . Although no certain information confirming his authorship has survived, some indications point to it. These include distinctive elements of the studio's décor and furnishings (a cover finished with a black tassel/fringe as a chair-back decoration), known from other of his surviving photographs. In addition, the photograph is from a series of several of his works bearing consecutive asset numbers in the archival collection of the Ethnographic Museum in Krakow.

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 depicts a portrait of an elderly Jewish woman, facing the lens of the camera with her right three-quarter view. The woman is seated sideways on a chair, leaning her left arm on its backrest decorated with a cover and black tassel. She is dressed modestly according to tzniut rules (Hebrew: cni’ut), wearing a dark dress (?) that reaches the neck, with long sleeves adorned with velvet ribbons, and a white apron. The fastening on the torso is concealed by a richly decorated, embroidered breast-piece (Polish: załóżka), presumably made using the technique of Spanish work (Yiddish: spanier arbeit). A headscarf is tied around her head, tightly covering her hairline. She is holding a brush in her right hand, which may be an attribute of her profession (brushmaker or brush merchant).

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Information about the object
Author / creator
Dutkiewicz, Juliusz (183.-około 1908)
Object type
photography
Time of creation / dating
2nd half of the 19th century
Place of creation
Kolomyia (Ukraine)
Technique
black-and-white photograph
Material
photographic print paper
Keywords
Copyrights status
the object is not protected by copyright law
Owner
Seweryn Udziela Etnographical Museum in Kraków
Identification number
III/85/F MEK