Wrocław – National Museum in Wrocław (Siena by Ludwig Peter Kowalski)

This artwork at the National Museum in Wrocław was painted by Ludwig Peter Kowalski (1891-1967) and I’m intrigued by this more in terms of the artist than this particular work. It is a stylistic view of the Italian city of Siena which is quite alluring, but it was painted in 1930 and this was at a time when nationalism was starting to increase across Germany. Kowalski had served in the German military during the First World War, but he studied in Italy and in 1927 he went to work at the Academy for Art and Crafts in Breslau (now known as the Polish city of Wrocław). His works were not liked by the new Nazi regime as they weren’t keen on the expressionist movement, he was tolerated for a short period before being dismissed in 1934. He was effectively forcibly moved in 1945 when the borders were changed and a couple of years later he went to live in Berlin for the rest of his life.

I might be alone in this, as I often have random flights of fancy about these matters, but there’s something in looking at an artwork painted nearly 100 years ago knowing that the artist couldn’t have possibly have predicted what would have happened to him. The city in which he worked would cease to be German, he would be fired from his job and forced to move elsewhere in the country, eventually securing some financial reward but likely struggling throughout the 1930s. That somehow all felt rather more imposing than the artwork in front of me. And it also reminded me that I haven’t been to Siena.