Józef Czapski’s interest in the work of Nicolas de Staël

On 3 June 1981, the 85-year-old Józef Czapski, standing almost two metres tall, slightly stooped, wearing a straw hat and carrying a sketchbook and a felt-tip pen, made his way to the Grand Palais in Paris, he was able, for the first time, to stand before so many paintings by Nicolas de Staël ( 1914–1955). As he climbed the steps to the Grand Palais, he saw a large poster advertising the exhibition, featuring a female nude (the painting ‘Les Indes galantes’, 1953). In several galleries, for the first time in Paris , at a state institution, a major retrospective exhibition comprising over 120 works by this Franco-Russian painter was presented.

Czapski had already taken an interest in de Staël’s work as early as the 1950s. In March 1950, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris purchased de Staël’s ‘Composition’ (1949). In Paris, in June 1950, 12 of his paintings were exhibited at the Galerie Jacques Dubourg at 10 avenue de Messine. The artist was invited to take part in group exhibitions, including at the Galerie Charpentier in 1954 and 1955. Even after the painter’s death, in 1957, his art dealer exhibited a series of drawings at the Galerie Jacques Dubourg.

Nicolas de Staël as seen by Józef Czapski

In his article ‘An Unstoppable Current’ (1959), Józef Czapski analysed the life and work of Nicolas de Staël. He wrote:

‘At a time when thousands of painters around the world are swept along by the “unstoppable current” towards abstraction, this painter—who had achieved worldwide success precisely through such abstract painting—broke with abstraction and, alone, began to return to nature. The return was difficult. It is fraught with doubt, mental vacillations, and perhaps also a struggle against pressure and the negative reactions of colleagues and art dealers. He is once again completely alone.”

In December 1964, Czapski wrote to his friend, the writer Ludwik Hering (1908–1984): “There is now an exhibition by de Staël, a beautiful one, which I have not seen.” The exhibition he referred to took place at the Galerie Louis Carré in Paris (8–31 December 1964). Seventeen of the artist’s paintings from 1946–1947 were displayed at the time. Although he was unable to see the exhibition, he closely followed the articles that appeared about the artist and pasted selected ones into his diary (from *Le Monde*, 18 December 1964: ‘Nicolas de Staël a trenste deux ans’, written by André Chastel [1912–1990]; from *Beaux-Arts*, 9–15 December 1964, ‘De Staël reste le peintre capital de sa génération’, written by Pierre Courthion [1902–1988]).

Józef Czapski and the paintings of Nicolas de Staël

As Czapski admitted in his article ‘De Staël’ (1981), he knew the painter’s works primarily from reproductions , which is why he eagerly awaited the moment when his health and daily responsibilities would allow him to see the major exhibition at the Grand Palais. This is evidenced by an entry in his diary dated 30 May: “Suddenly I find myself under the spell of the de Staël exhibition, which I have not yet seen, but which I can picture in my mind”.

In June 1981, he finally stood before the paintings of his favourite artist . “De Staël’s great exhibition dazzled me,” he wrote in a letter (27 June 1981) to the poet and essayist Joanna Pollakówna (1939–2002).

He looked closely, took notes and sketched in his sketchbook the master’s paintings and… the people at the exhibition.

“The exhibition […] revealed to me, yet again, what art can mean to a person. […] It gave me the revelation that, despite the long years now behind me, art can still impose an experience so powerful, so new and, as it were, of an entirely different substance. In spite of misfortune, in spite of my waning strength, a joyful experience—I cannot find another word for it. So what does it offer that is not tied to any particular age: an experience beyond time?’ he noted.

Czapski bought the catalogue of that exhibition. The first major one and the last one he ever saw. On its pages one can find traces of his reading, with comments. At the end of the book was the artist’s confession: ‘Why I was such a coward for so long. Great, blessed de Staël!’.

He was so deeply impressed – he, an old painter who was losing his strength and vision, and painting less and less because the hardships of life were drawing him away from his work – that suddenly, after viewing de Staël’s work, he regained his creative vigour , as if he had been reborn. He produced numerous painting notes and sketches, which he later transferred onto canvases to create a series of paintings, and wrote an article entitled ‘De Staël’ .

A Tribute to Nicolas de Staël

Moving from the room of abstract works to the room where

‘figurative or semi-figurative paintings burst forth […], in this room, from the now-famous paintings of night-time football […] to the large-scale “orchestra”, which has been reproduced many times, we proceed further to still lifes of various sizes […] right up to a canvas covering the entire wall, immense, where, against a background of smooth blood-red, stands a black piano, a stack of music books and a huge cello, more like a giant pear” – wrote Czapski in his essay ‘De Staël’.

And it was precisely this moment – of viewing the vast canvas ‘covering the entire wall’ – that he captured in the painting ‘Hommage à de Staël’, which is held in a French collection.

He took up his brushes to preserve this ‘blissful experience’ for as long as possible – his own vision, ‘that orgy of colours, that spectrum of brutal hues, where blacks and whites gave way to sharp yellows and the repeated cry of vermilion’. He longed to stand before the paintings once more. On 29 June 1981, Józef Czapski visited the de Staël exhibition once more . He returned to feast his eyes once again and relive his happy experience: he was sketching again, and further painterly notes were taking shape.

“And suddenly, in de Staël, I felt a pure source of inspiration—like a clear, crystalline mountain stream. ‘This experience was not a passing mood, but a certainty,’ he wrote, ‘all the virtuoso displays, verbosity and dubious myths created about art up to that point […] all of this ceased to exist in the face of de Staël’s art, dazzling and always (whether abstract or figurative) true to itself.”

In his room in Maisons-Laffitte, which also served as his studio, Czapski began work on ‘Hommage à de Staël’ on 11 September 1981. In the painting we see two works , painted by de Staël in 1955 on huge canvases: ‘Concert’ ( 350 × 600 cm) and ‘Seagulls’ (195 × 130 cm). Józef Czapski marvelled at the riot of colour in *Concert* alongside the subdued, greyish-white *Seagulls*. This was Nicolas de Staël’s final exploration of colour.

‘[…] A wild, lightning-like immediacy in conveying his vision, as if expelling it in a single breath, with a certain confidence and precision in the ideas he realised using ever-changing techniques’ – he noted enthusiastically.

In early March 1955, Nicolas de Staël travelled from his studio in Antibes to Paris to attend two concerts at the Théâtre Marigny. At the time , he listened to Webern’s ‘Variations, Op. 30’ and Schoenberg. On his return, between 12 and 14 March 1955, he worked on ‘Concerto’ – which, as it turned out, was his final work. After the artist’s death, ‘The Seagulls’ and other works remained in his studio.

In Józef Czapski’s painting, three young men stand before these works by de Staël : two wearing blue trousers and blue shirts, and the third dressed entirely in white. The painter knew that when de Staël took his own life on 16 March 1955 at 10.15 pm, by jumping out of a window from the first floor of his studio on Rue Revely in Antibes, he was wearing blue trousers, a blue shirt and espadrilles.

“I tried, in conversation with people who knew him closely, were friends with him and had seen him just a few days before his death, to find out what the real reason was for this sudden desire to die. Could it really have been just a crisis in his painting?” – Czapski wondered .

Today we know more. It may not have been just a creative crisis that was to blame. In the summer of 1953, Nicolas de Staël fell madly in love with the married woman Jeanne Polge ( née Mathieu) and began to lead an “emotional double life”. This continued until he left his wife Françoise and their children, but in September 1954 his lover refused to move in with the artist. He wrote to her: “You’ll drive me mad, to the very end…”, once he knew that her rejection was becoming certain. A difficult time ensued. His wife, Françoise, asked him not to see the children or write to them. Isolated and lonely, he tried to drown out his pain and his inner collapse. He still met with a few friends, but above all he threw himself feverishly into his work : he painted countless still lifes and landscapes.

Czapski alongside de Staël

From 15 September 2023 to 24 January 2024, the Musée d’’Art Moderne in Paris , a major retrospective exhibition of Nicolas de Staël was on display, featuring over 200 paintings, drawings and sketches from private and public collections in Europe and the United States. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue, which also featured a painting by Józef Czapski . The publisher at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris asked me to help select one of Józef Czapski’s paintings, which was created after the Polish artist had seen the 1981 Nicolas de Staël exhibition. A photograph from the Polish collection (Museum of the Archdiocese of Warsaw) of the painting I selected, *At the de Staël Exhibition* (1981), appeared in the exhibition catalogue alongside de Staël’s works.

In 2027, a retrospective exhibition of Józef Czapski’s works will take place at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris. Official discussions about this exhibition began in 2022. I took part in these discussions alongside representatives of the Polish government. Will the works of this Polish artist be accompanied by a painting by de Staël this time? Even if only in the catalogue… We shall find out as early as March 2027.