Fałat’s Kraków from the studio window
A panoramic watercolour of the city’s defences was seized and moved to the German district headquarters. Its trail ends during the occupation.
The Barbican and towers of Kraków’s old defences stretch across a watercolour more than a metre and a half wide. Julian Fałat repeatedly painted the city from his studio after taking charge of the School of Fine Arts in 1895. Variations in the light and season made the same stretch of masonry a different subject each time.
The 1896 sheet can be distinguished from Fałat’s other Kraków views by its dimensions, 65.5 by 163.5 centimetres, and its collecting history. The Wawel foundation of Antonina and Dawid Abramowicz bought it in 1927 for a gallery at the rebuilt castle. The work was deposited with the National Museum in Kraków before 1929.
German authorities requisitioned the painting on 9 November 1939 and took it to the Pałac pod Baranami, the headquarters of the occupation’s Kraków district. The loss catalogue places its likely disappearance near the end of 1944. It gives no confirmed account of the moment the watercolour left the palace, and its later whereabouts remain unknown.
Artwork Details & DocumentationIdentification, ownership history and supporting records
Individual artwork identification details have not yet been documented in this record. Missing specifications are not inferred from the photograph or report headline.
Not documented in this record: object type · materials & technique · measurements · inscriptions & markings · distinguishing features · artwork title · maker / attribution · creation date / period · subject.
Record sources
Identification details follow the Object ID categories where documented. Ownership history is recorded separately; this documentation is not an authentication or a certificate of ownership.
Documentary sources
- Muzeum Utracone · object and provenance ↗
- Culture.pl · wartime losses ↗
- Museum of Bielsko-Biała · Fałat chronology ↗
An original ArtTraceX synthesis. Sources checked .