The cultural life of Lviv in the early 1840s appeared to be not very rich and varied, especially given the intensive development of the city as the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Although a large art exhibition had been organised in the city a few years earlier, in 1837, these activities did not find a quick follow-up. In the absence of a permanent exhibition institution, only small, individual shows were held, usually in bookshops and artists' shops. These provided the only substitute for contact between artists and local art lovers. In 1842, the young painter Jan Tysiewicz, who was less than thirty years old, organised a small exhibition in Franciszek Galiński's shop in Lviv, which consisted of just one painting. On 19 November, a supplement to the "Gazeta Lvovskaya" titled "Variety" announced that Tysiewicz's painting, a copy of Jan Baptiste Lodewijk Maes's "incomparably poetical St Magdalene", would soon be on display. The original, by a Belgian painter active mainly in Rome, had won a gold medal at an exhibition in The Hague a year earlier and was subsequently exhibited in several European capitals. Although similar exhibition practice was not a novelty in Lviv, something out of the ordinary happened with this particular work - it caused a sensation. It was quickly followed not only by fulsome reviews, but also by reports that "audiences were streaming in", which was not even halted by the admission fee of 10 krajcars (to be used for charitable purposes).

The author of the work on display at the time was a Pole, born in Lithuania as Władysław Niewiarowicz. In 1830, as a 16-year-old, he took up painting studies at Vilnius University under Jan Rustem, but did not manage to learn much due to the outbreak of the November Uprising, in which he took part. As a result, he had to leave the Russian partition. He then crossed into Galicia, taking the surname Jan Tysiewicz, which he used for the rest of his life. He spent a few years in Lvov, continuing his studies in painting, and in 1839 left for Vienna, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts under Friedrich von Amerling, an outstanding Biedermeier portraitist. It was probably in the imperial capital that Tysiewicz saw Maes's painting and made a copy, which he sent to Lvov to demonstrate the development of his talent to a wider audience.

The painting was not only eagerly viewed, but almost immediately found a buyer in the person of the wealthy landowner Czarnecki, who bought it for 500 Rhine gold. The painter made a second copy purchased immediately by Feliks Boznansky; the third was commissioned by Seraf Tłuchowski. There may have been many more of these replicas; it is also known that the author himself made reduced watercolour variants, and a lithograph was also published.

There was also a rumour that Boznański ordered a copy from Tysiewicz, finding in the face of the saint the most faithful image of his deceased daughter. Knowing the further fate of the work that belonged to him, however, one can doubt whether this affectionate story was not by chance a form of what we would today describe as marketing. Because immediately after the canvas was handed over to him, Boznański decided to exhibit his version in Dresden, Berlin, Leipzig, Paris, St Petersburg, Poznań and Warsaw. He was also reportedly planning visits to Kiev and London, although it is not known whether these plans came to fruition. From reports in Warsaw, we learn that Tysiewicz's painting was presented in a peculiar way. In an almost completely darkened hall, with artificial light, with the frames covered in black velvet. The painting was separated from the audience by a table, which prevented a close approach. And above all, a mirror was used, in whose reflection the shapes seemed even softer and the composition more unreal. In this way, the mechanisms of the dioramas popular in the 19th century were used to achieve additional illusionistic effects, strongly influencing the audience, especially, as it was pointed out, the less sophisticated part of the audience looking for surprise and emotion.

The "Gazeta Lwowska" alone wrote about this work a dozen times, an unprecedented result in the entire first half of the 19th century, making the exposition the most commented on event of Lvov artistic life of the epoch. And the Lvov press was also fond of reprinting opinions (mostly positive, though no longer so panegyric) from the press of the other partitions and from abroad attesting to the success of the "countryman" on the international arena. Particularly noteworthy were the chiaroscuro effects used by the painter, the basic idea of which was to exploit the contrast between natural (moonlight) and artificial light, the source of which was an olive lamp standing behind the skull. There was also praise for the sculptural modelling of the figure of the saint -- a body that appeared to contemporaries as a perfect compromise between the truth of nature and the ideal. Emphasis was also placed on the deep and saturated colours and, in particular, the way in which the complexion of the skin was painted, which was considered to be a characteristic feature of the work of Amerling and his pupils. It has been pointed out that the way Mary Magdalene is portrayed is a summary presentation of her life: the beauty of her body alludes to the stage when she led the life of a fallen woman, but the pain-filled expression on her face and the broken eyes raised to the sky are evidence of her later transformation. In this perspective, the painting was interpreted as a voice of the dichotomy of sin and repentance, fall and subsequent spiritual triumph.

Following the patterns of the general European academic religious art of the time, Tysiewicz's painting fits the type of sensual-mystical image of the saint, perfectly fulfilling the expectations of the public of the time. In Lviv, his show became not only the event of the season, but actually of the entire decade. Years later it was still remembered as the object of the centre's greatest commercial exhibition success. The European tour of the replica purchased by Boznański ensured Maria Magdalena Tysiewicz a recognition that no other painting by any Polish painter had achieved before. Although this work remains rather rarely mentioned today, it is worth remembering that before the immensely popular displays of the great historical works of Jan Matejko or Henryk Siemiradzki, it was this relatively small sacred composition, which was, moreover, only a copy of a work by another artist highly regarded on the continent, that represented Polish art on the international arena.

Location: Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Vilnius