Leon Chwistek, Portrait of Dr Jakóbc

Leon Chwistek created 'Portrait of Dr Jakóbc' probably between 1925 and 1927, in oil on canvas. The author of the work is a mathematician and doctor of philosophy at the Jagiellonian University. He probably inherited a talent for painting from his mother, a pupil of Jan Matejko. He took painting lessons from Józef Mehoffer at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow. In 1917, he co-founded the artistic group 'Polish Expressionists', becoming its main theoretician. Chwistek's attitude was fundamentally influenced by the aesthetics of French Cubism and Italian Futurism, from which he drew the concept of an artistic form independent of imitating nature. He introduced zoning in his compositions, characterised by the dominance of a single colour and a single multiplied shape. Chwistek is the author of many images of personalities of the intellectual environment of Krakow. Dr. Jan Jakóbiec, a Polish philologist, Germanist and philosopher, was involved in independence activities during World War II - he created local structures of the Polish Underground State, and from 1941 headed the Krakow Regional Delegation of the Polish Government as an underground governor.