Między Dużym a Małym Krakowem. Malarz i pedagog Apolinary Kotowicz (1859–1917)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to Apolinary Kotowicz, a painter born in Biecz (once referred to Parva Cracovia – Small Kraków), an alumni of Kraków’s School of Fine Arts, a student of Jan Matejko and Simon Hollόsy in Munich. Having spent more than ten years in Kraków – where he had lots of exhibitions, was a decorator in the Municipal Theatre and People’s Theatre – the artist decided to go back to his homeland and accept the position of a drawing teacher in a grammar school in Jasło, the oldest institution of this level in the entire Subcarpathia. Working in this capacity until his death (i.e. in the years 1905–1917), he lived in an impressive villa built in the vicinity of the municipal park in Jasło, designed by Teodor Talowski. While working artistically for the entire time (he specialized in aquarelles, using which he created mainly landscapes and genre scene), he bonded tightly with the school, inspiring its pupils to commune with art, which in the case of a few of them led to taking an artistic path, not infrequently marked by success. Despite being unfulfilled artistically himself, Kotowicz had thusly paid the debt to his homeland.