Objects

This is, we believe, an early work by Ryszard Moszkowski (from his high school years?). It is known that the object was preserved in the house of Kazimierz and Balbina Moszkowski that survived the Warsaw Uprising although it was looted, but this painting, as well as another one, survived and has not been stolen. It is reasonable to assume that this is a family heirloom. As this was a wealthy family before the war, they would not have kept this kind of work as a work of art, it must have been a keepsake. From this we can surmise that it is the work of the Moszkowskis' son, Ryszard Moszkowski, from his youth or early art studies. This would also explain, to some extent, why it was not donated to the National Museum in Warsaw by his mother together with other works by her son, killed in January 1945. The painting would have been treated by her as not belonging to the main core of the sculptor's legacy.

The letter samples preserved on the back are probably child's play. Perhaps it was Marek Sawicki who, as a child, found the plywood in the home of his grandmother Apolonia Moszkowska, who looked after the work after Kazimierz, her husband's brother, and Balbina Moszkowska left Poland. Another painting on plywood,Still Life with Jug and Mushrooms(also in the museum's collection), authorship of which is similarly attributed to Moszkowski, has various pencil drawings on the back.