Franz Joseph Wagner

Price range: (5 000 zł - 10 000 zł)

A typical Wagner landscape with the village of Wolmsdorf in the background. Wolmsdorf or Wolframsdorf was a small settlement founded in the 14th century in Lower Silesia, today it lies within the borders of Poland and is called Rogóżka. The development of the village was determined by the creation of a marble quarry in 1867 and the discovery of the "Dripstone Cave," which is characterized by its large size and rich dripstone decoration. Unfortunately, the over mining of the quarry in the 1950s led to its complete destruction. In the foreground we can see a meadow bathed in full sunlight. Here and there, delicate spots of white and blue flowers are thrown. In the distance to the right, behind a wooden bridge over a small creek, rural cottages were built under the forest. On the left, behind the palisade, a bit torn by a tooth of time, there is a fragment of an orchard with its characteristic whitewashed bark of fruit trees. Above the orchard, in a clump of wild trees, a lonely birch majestically dominates. The height of the tree introduces a note of anxiety to the harmoniously composed landscape. The cheerful composition characterized by the lushness of green-blue colors. The signature is placed in the lower right corner: "F.J. Wagner." The canvas and painting are in good condition and well preserved.

About the artist: (1866 - ?) Painter and graphic artist of German origin. Wagner was born in 1886 in the small village of Wolmsdorf - today called Rogóżka. This beautifully and picturesquely situated settlement is unfortunately in the process of disappearance. In the 1960's it did not have a single inhabitant, and in 2008 the authorities of Stronie Śląskie allocated its land for sale. The artist most willingly and most often worked in oil, notwithstanding the graphics, which was richly illustrated in regional magazines Glatz/Kłodzko and in particular Die Grafschaft Glatz. Although Wagner had a thriving and profitable studio in Wrocław, as a member of Klodzko Artistic Group (KVGH) he remained faithful to his family. In his rich artistic output we can find both excellent landscape painting in the vicinity of Bystrzyca Kłodzka, Lądek-Zdrój and Bolesławów, as well as excellent realistic portrait painting depicting local residents working. After World War II Wagner moved to the mountains of Harz (Lower Saxony) in Kreiensen and from that type the fate of the artist, as well as the date of his death are unknown. The beauty of the Sudetenland landscape in Wagner's works could be admired at an exhibition titled Graphics and Landscape Painting in the Kłodzko Land in the 20th century - the generation organized in 1999 by the Kłodzko Regional Museum.

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