Objects

The lithography "At the Post" belongs to a quite numerous group of images of legionaries unknown by name within Gottlieb's lithographic portfolio. Gottlieb usually expressed his opinions about the war, in which he took an active part, in the form of portraits; he did not leave strictly battle works. However, in his portraits, such as the one showing an anonymous guard, the hardships of war leave their mark, here legible from the tired physiognomy and the bandage wrapping around the wounded head under the maciejówka robe. | Dedicating this, and not another, work to Professor Jerzy Mycielski (1856-1928), the organiser of many foreign displays of legionary works (including exhibitions arranged with Gottlieb in Zurich), does not seem coincidental. Mycielski was not only an art historian and collector, but above all a propagator of the Legion idea, and thus in a sense its guardian. | AT