An Attempt at Reconstruction of the Original Colour Scheme of the Paper Ground of Witkacy’s Portraits

• Main Author: Beata Zgodzińska
• Format: Article
• Language: Polish
• Published: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu 2010-01-01
• Series: Przestrzenie Teorii
• Subjects: S.I. Witkiewicz; Witkacy; portrety; rekonstrukcja komputerowa; oryginał
• Online Access: http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/pt/article/view/3421

In the years 2005–2006 at a Restoration Workshop of Muzeum Pomorza Środkowego [Museum of Central Pomerania] in Słupsk, Witkacy’s portraits were framed in a new passe partout and glass pane. Based on the photographs taken then of fragments on which the colour of the paper ground was preserved, a computer reconstruction of the original colour of the paper was made. Comparison of the portraits with their probable original versions allows to risk a claim that nowadays we have to do with totally different pictures. The colour of the paper has changed considerably, e.g. from its initial violet it has turned into grey-beige. Equally big changes can be observed between the reverse and the face. When framing the portrait, restorers found an unfinished portrait on the reverse. The examples presented in this work show how important for the knowledge of the artist and his work is drawing attention to a single work of art, which is best to study directly and not through its reproductions or studies on it.