Some Remarks on the Life and Painting of Bohdan Kelles-Krauze

Abstract

Bohdan Kelles-Krauze (1885-1945) was an architect by profession, but a painter by avocation and that from his early age onward. This artist was an extremely important figure in the artistic milieu of Lublin in the inter-war period. He settled in Lublin together with his family in 1921. Today he is forgotten undeservedly and his name is well-known only to a small group of scholars. He graduated from Lviv Polytechnic in 1910, and then went on artistic journeys to Munich and Paris. Several times he changed his jobs until he finally permanently settled in Lublin. There he was employed at the Regional Administration of Public Works at the post of regional architect, where he stayed until his premature death in 1945. He was an author of several dozen buildings in Lublin and in the Lublin region. They are different with regard to style and function. Then his designs gradually passed from national forms to functionalism. Krauze's passion outside his job was painting. Many of his works have been preserved to date. They are composed of various paintings, and at the same time they are coherent in term of their workshop. Despite concrete transformations with regard to their form, especially with regard to colour and texture, subtle references to the works of home painters and those from the circle of French post-Impressionism, his style is clear. Against the backdrop of Lublin painters who advocated traditional stylistics he appeared as a modern artist. In his works he combined two apparently incongruent elements: the sensitive painter Krauze always maintained the clear logic of Krauze architect with solid drawing and real form built with an elaborated colour.