PORTRAIT OF DOCTOR Bernard (BER) KUPCZYK

In the years before his departure for Paris in 1907, Leopold Gottlieb moved in Kraków’s artistic and intellectual circles. During this time, he must have met Jewish doctor Berek (Bernard) Kupczyk, specialising in neurology and psychiatry, the owner of the Hydrotherapy Institute in Kraków. A cultural activist well-known in Kraków, Berek Kupczyk supported writers and artists as well as initiatives undertaken by Jewish organisations.

The portrait of Doctor Kupczyk was made (or completed) in the same year as Leopold Gottlieb's self-portrait and displays a similar aura of mystery, enhanced by refined sensuous chromatic nuances and soft transitions. The effect is a depiction of a seated man, his gaze averted, whose nonchalant pose with a cigarette and carefully chosen dandy clothes exude sensuality. But the figure is not the dominant element in the painting – moved to the edge of the composition, it blends to a great extent into the brown background.

Next to him, against a background of shimmering patches of gradated shades of blue, green, off white and purple, there is a slim vase holding two iris flowers. Their rich violet purple corresponds with Kupczyk’s tie, creating a visual and symbolic hyperbole. A recurrent motif in Stanisław Wyspiański’s work, the iris symbolised the beauty of nature, the transience of life, and the soul. Doctor Kupczyk was a friend and patron of theatre critic Stanisław Lacki, a close friend of Stanisław Wyspiański with whom he kept up a lively correspondence. Before his death, Lacki gave the letters to Kupczyk who edited them; they were published in 1956. Berek Kupczyk died in 1941.

Małgorzata Stolarska-Fronia