Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Warsaw Street Types

Józef  Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 n


Józef  Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 e


Józef  Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 a


Józef  Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 b


Józef  Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 c


Józef  Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 d


Józef  Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 f


Józef  Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 g


Józef  Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 h


Józef  Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 k


Józef  Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 l


Józef  Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 m


'Z dawnej i niedawnej Warszawy" : album typów ulicznych : 20 autolitografji' (approx: The Recent and Former Warsaw: An Album of Street Types: 20 lithographs) from the Polish Digital Library (1926).

Józef Rapacki (1871-1929) trained as an artist in Warsaw, Cracow and Munich. He travelled to Italy on many occasions and was known as a landscape artist early in his career, but later in life he was more inclined towards illustration and graphic art works.

I'm not sure I could correctly identify all of the trades depicted among this suite of sometimes dubious-looking urban characters. There's certainly no attempt to embellish the portraits: these are not romantic sketches; although the subjects are generally displayed with a proud countenance. The pictures are somewhat reminiscent of the urchins and street people found in Mayhew's study of the London poor from the 1860s.

5 comments :

Karla said...

I'm not sure how far I'd trust that statue-vendor...

Zooey Glass said...

These images are still very popular in Poland, copied countless times. Thanks, Paul

Rima Staines said...

Wow, these are wonderful drawings...
Funny I just posted about my "job" as a tinker, all the dubious characters I meet on the streets and the drawings I make that are inspired by them... there must be something in the air!

porter hovey said...

Once again lovely, lovey drawings. I love every single one of them.

Island Bookworm said...

Wonderful drawings. Reminds me of Dickens.

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