The collection of the Nacionalni muzej moderne umjetnosti in Zagreb contains two works by Stanislaw Czajkowski (1878-1955), a Polish painter who was an heir to the Symbolist tradition, deeply rooted in motifs of the native landscape. This artist, in the spirit of the advice of Jan Stanislawski, one of his masters, rendered on canvas the changing and fleeing world of the Polish countryside.

Czajkowski began his artistic education at the Gerson School in Warsaw, continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow under such artists as Jacek Malczewski, Józef Mehoffer and Leon Wyczółkowski, and later moved to Munich. Disappointed with the academy there, he chose to study at a private school run by Stanisław Grocholski and then, at the urging of his brother, moved to Paris, where he began his studies at the Académie Julian. Upon his return to Poland from 1908, he became associated with the "Sztuka" Society, travelled extensively, and worked as an assistant to Tadeusz Pruszkowski at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, where he taught plein-air classes. After the Second World War, he settled in Milanówek, sharing a flat for a while with the sculptor Henryk Kuna and his wife. At the age of 72, Czajkowski was appointed professor of drawing and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and died in Sandomierz, during an open-air workshop with students.

The painting Harvest, which is part of the Zagreb collection, represents Tchaikovsky's early period. This canvas depicts a scene from village life immediately after the harvest, with the characteristic sheaves of grain stacked in the field. The artist has chosen a wide panorama that immerses the viewer in a gentle, native landscape. The horizontal layout of the composition, with the horizon line drawn high, allows the viewer to focus on two main elements - the field and the sky. Its static nature and the stretched lines of the landscape give the impression that the scene is frozen in the hot summer air. The colour palette abounds in shades of brown, beige and green, which emphasises the naturalness of the scene depicted. The heavy clouds over the fields not only provide a counterpoint to the composition, but are also responsible for the specific diffusion of light, which demonstrates the artist's skill in using light and colour to directly convey the experience of the landscape.

Tchaikovsky's paintings, which are maintained in a realistic manner, indicate the consistency in artistic pursuits that characterised him throughout his life. Although, over time, his works evolved towards a certain syntheticity and abbreviation of forms, especially evident after his trip to the Netherlands, as art critics pointed out, the artist never succumbed to the influence of artistic novelties. Instead, he consistently 'bit into' the structure of the painting, striving for inner harmony. His experiments, although they may seem conservative and old-fashioned, do not indicate a halt in the 19th century. A traditionalist, Tchaikovsky consistently analysed the painterly structure of a painting, aiming for a painterly synthesis that would most fully represent the native landscape.

oil, canvas, 72.2 x 98.3 cm, inv. no. MG-1193, Nacionalni muzej moderne umjetnosti, Zagreb