Guanti Grotto in Tenerife, from the Canary Collection
Guanti Grotto in Tenerife, from the Canary Collection
Guanti Grotto in Tenerife, from the Canary Collection

Guanti Grotto in Tenerife, from the Canary Collection

Author: Stabrowski Kazimierz, 1869 - 1929

Created: 1911.

Material / technique: paper, pastel.

Dimensions: 51x64 cm.

Signature: K. Stabrowski (in the bottom-left corner of the painting).

The composition depicts a bright stony twilight, lighting up a pathway in the darkness, which is reminiscent of the inside of a cave. Although the colour spectrum of the painting is, at first glance, somewhat lacking and depressing, a closer look reveals a myriad of subtle colours and shades. Grey, brown, dark green, dark blue, and black tones fill the entire area of the painting, awakening strangely mystical sensations. The red strokes of the twilight shine and flare. The composition of light and darkness brings forth mystical forms and shadows. In the dark depths of the painting lies a bright, yet vague silhouette, a strange shape, which viewed at one angle is present in the picture, but invisible if viewed from another. The stones in the pastel create an allusion of the remains of a human, namely a skull and a hand. Reality is all but the cover that hides something truly incomprehensible and deep.

Reference: ‘Kazimierz Stabrowski, the Teacher of M. K. Čiurlionis’. Kaunas: M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum, 2016, Kat. Nr.3, P.42.

Exhibitions:  ‘Kazimierz Stabrowski, the Teacher of M. K. Čiurlionis’, 2015 September 24 - 2016 January 3, M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum,Kaunas;  Exhibition of the Fine Arts Collection of Edmundas Armoška "Outcrops of Lithuanian Art 16th–21th Centuries" 2008 July 3 - August 31, Lithuanian Art Museum, Vilnius.

Published: Kazimierz Stabrowski, the Teacher of M. K. Čiurlionis’. Kaunas: M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum, 2016, Kat. Nr.2, P. 42.  The World of Landscapes, II T., Vilnius: LAWIN, 2013, Kat. Nr. 1; Exhibition of the Fine Arts Collection of Edmundas Armoška "Outcrops of Lithuanian Art 16th–21th Centuries", Lithuanian Art Museum, Vilnius. 2008. Kat. Nr. II, 67, P. 106; Serge Fauchereau  „Baltic art XIX-XX century“, Flammarion, 2021, translated by Birutė Gelgaudaitė , Hubris, 2021, P. 20.

Photograph: Kazimierz Stabrowski (1869–1929).