More mysteries that need solving. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
On the Chaim Goldberg Wikipedia website entry, there is a section titled “List of Kazimierz-Dolny artists.” In this section my great-grandfather is listed as artist number 53: Mojzesz Rynecki (1885-1942). The birth and death dates do not match my family’s own records, but this is an alternate spelling of his first name and I’ve seen these dates used before.
According to a Polish tourist website about the Kazimierz Dolny artist community, artists began visiting the town and painting there starting in the late 18th century. However, the small town on the Vistula River really began to see an influx of artists in the 20th century when the Warsaw School of Fine Arts began bringing its students there to paint. Apparently 1909 was a “landmark in the artistic history of the town, as Władysław Ślewiński, an experienced artist working in Pont-Aven and a friend of Paul Gauguin’s, came here with his students that year. Since then, groups of painters and artists were becoming an increasingly common sight in Kazimierz Dolny, and the foundations for the art colony were laid.”
I know from a book published about the history of the Academy of the Fine Arts in Warsaw, that Moshe Rynecki attended the academy during the 1906/1907 school year. Moshe would have been in his mid 20s during this time period.
On the spreadsheet I have from the Jewish Historical Institute (ZIH) in Warsaw listing the 52 Rynecki pieces in their collection, the museum has titled several different market scenes “Targ w Kazimerzu nad Wisla,” [a rough Google translation: Market Kazimerzu on the Vistula.]
So here are my questions: (1) How does ZIH know these paintings were painted at Kazimerzu Market? (2) Are there markings on the back of the painting that provide this information? If so, what do they say? (3) Are the words Kazimerzu and Kazimierz interchangable words? Is it a language conjugation/use issue that puts the “u” on the end of the word? (4) Does ZIH mean the Kazimierz Market as in the Krakow marketplace and not Kazimierz Dolny? They are different towns. (5)How does the Chaim Goldberg Wikipedia entry know that my great-grandfather painted at the Kazimierz Dolny art colony? (6) Is there something about these market scenes that make them uniquely identifiable?
And now… 2 more paintings from the 17 I received in an email from the Jewish Historical Institute. This top painting is dated 1937 – If it is at the Kazimierz Dolny Art Colony, did my great-grandfather visit the artist colony with the Warsaw Academy of Art while he was a student and then did he continue to visit the town on his own throughout the rest of his life? Or is this at a marketplace in another location?
…..dated 1937
….undated