The painter and graphic artist Edward Okuń is one of the most intriguing individualists creating at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Paradoxically, he is somewhat forgotten today precisely because of his original style , unchanged despite the changing world around him. He combined symbolic motifs, characteristic of Young Poland art, and flexible Art Nouveau lines with inspirations from Italian Renaissance art. The artist combined modern technique with graphic decorum; contemporary compositions with mysterious themes from the borderland of fairy tales, literature and dreams. In his work he pursued the modernist idea of a synthesis of the arts, combining plastic themes with literary and musical ones.

Four Strings of a Violin

The title of the painting is ambiguous. It figures interchangeably with 'Vivitur Ingenio Caetera Mortis Erunt', from a Latin maxim placed on the painting's frame. The artist was known for leaving nothing to chance in his works. He also designed the frames himself. The sentence ' Genius lasts, the rest is mortal ' refers to the timeless existence of ideas, a genius that transcends the barrier of the creator's life.

Okuń depicted human mortality quite bluntly in the painting. In the foreground, he painted a catafalque covered with bouquets of pink chrysanthemums, in the midst of which rests a violin. This instrument also appeared in other 'musical' compositions as a symbol of creation.

Behind the catafalque, four women - personifications of the four strings and sounds of the violin , in mourning attire, with arms crossed over their chests and heads covered with long black veils covering the rest of their bodies - walk, singing . The first two, on the left side of the painting, are actually the same figure shown in profile, with eyes closed, with dark brown wavy hair pinned low above the nape of the neck. The third woman is the only one looking at the viewer. Slightly from above, somewhat surreptitiously from under her veil, as if she were discreetly checking who has turned up at the funeral. She resembles the muse from the painting "The Philistines". The fourth woman looks at the violin, as if to cast a final farewell glance.

In the background is a distant Italian landscape with Renaissance architecture among the hills, with a bell-campanile visible. The background is a reminder of what a great landscape painter Edward Okuń was.

In 1984, the painting was acquired through Christie's auction house in New York by the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tuscon.

A short biography of the artist

Edward Franciszek Mateusz Okuń was born on 21 September 1872 in Wólka Zerzeńska (nowadays the area of Warsaw's Wawer district), to a noble family. His biography begins rather dramatically. As a five-year-old, Edward loses his father, and five years later also his mother. The care of the boy and his younger sister, Zofia, was taken over by his grandparents on his mother's side. Perhaps these difficult experiences hardened Okun, shaping a young man who was very aware of his artistic choices, while the large estate inherited from his parents made it possible to pursue them freely.

Edward began his artistic education (1890) at Wojciech Gerson's Drawing Class , but after a year, tired of academic plaster sketching, he took up studies at Krakow's School of Fine Arts (1891-1993) , but after passing several semesters, he came into conflict with his lecturer and left the school. In search of true art, he went to Munich to study. He spent the next year studying at the school of the Slovenian painter Anton Ažbe (1862-1905) , and then from 1894 at the Naturklasse of Professor Karl Raupp (1837-1918) , at the Munich Academy. His financial independence allowed him to travel to the epicentre of modern art, which in this era was Paris. Already in late 1894 and early 1895, he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris with Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921). But he did not let himself be swept away by the artistic freedom of Paris.

Marriage and art

Disillusioned by avant-garde currents, he returned to Poland in 1895. His return to his home country resulted in an unexpected feeling. The painter fell in love with reciprocity with his close cousin (cousin 's sister), Zofia Wanda Tolkemit. They married after obtaining a papal dispensation. The kinship was so close that the Okuni did not decide to have offspring. Instead, they devoted their entire lives to art, which was certainly facilitated by the comfortable financial situation of both of them. Zofia shared her husband's passions and also became his muse and favourite model.

After their marriage (1897), the Okuni left for Munich , where the painter honed his craft at the school of the famous Hungarian realist, Simon Hollósy (1857-1918) . They then moved (1898) to Italy. They settled on Capri and then in Rome, which became their home until 1921. In the neo-Gothic Villa Strohl-Fern, near the famous Villa Borghese, Okuń, following in the footsteps of many artists, rented a studio. Italian landscapes, nature and motifs and stylisations became a very important part of his artistic creation.

The painter's artistic output

Edward Okuń was well known in artistic and literary circles. The success of his first individual exhibition in Warsaw's Krywult Salon (1899) brought the painter recognition and resulted in a long-standing collaboration with the famous literary magazine Chimera. Okuń, a lover of poetry, was one of the magazine's key illustrators until 1907, while his cover graphic 'Night' became iconic. In Munich, he collaborated with the Art Nouveau magazine 'Jugend'. He also illustrated works by Jan Kasprowicz, Leopold Staff and Stefan Żeromski.

Just as artistic and literary, musical motifs were close to Edward Okuni. The abstract, ephemeral nature of music strongly stimulated the painter's sensitivity, combining in his art with the mysteries of inspiration, creation, the genius of the creator. It recurred in his works such as: "Death of Paganini", "The Philistines", "Chopin's Mazurka" or "Musica Sacra". And finally, in the title painting 'Four Strings of the Violin', the most intriguing, which is in the collection of the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson, USA.

The final years of the artist's life

The Okuni family returned to Poland in 1921 and settled in Warsaw , in a tenement purchased at 12 Old Town Square. It became a home, studio and storehouse of works for the artist. He also designed the polychromes decorating its façade.

Edward Okuń became a professor at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts (from 1932 the Academy of Fine Arts). He was a member of the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka", and vice-president of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts. During the annual opening of the Zachęta Salon in December 1922, he guided President Gabriel Narutowicz, witnessed the fatal assassination attempt on the head of state by the painter Eligiusz Niewiadomski and, together with one of his aides, apprehended the perpetrator.

During the Second World War, the Okuni stayed in Warsaw. After the fall of the Warsaw Uprising , during which, together with a tenement house in the Old Town, many of the artist's works were destroyed, they moved to Skierniewice, where Edward Okuń died on 17 January 1945. Edward Okuń was killed in one of the streets by an accidental bullet. He was buried in his father's grave at the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.