Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Adam Styka (Polish, 1890-1959) A negotiation (in a carved giltwood frame) image 1
Adam Styka (Polish, 1890-1959) A negotiation (in a carved giltwood frame) image 2
Property from the Estate of the late John McMillian, sold by order of the Executors.
Lot 63*,AR

Adam Styka
(Polish, 1890-1959)
A negotiation

20 October 2021, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £137,750 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our 19th Century & Orientalist Paintings specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

Adam Styka (Polish, 1890-1959)

A negotiation
signed and dated '1920 ADAM/STYKA' (lower right)
oil on canvas
130.5 x 167cm (51 3/8 x 65 3/4in).
in a carved giltwood frame

Footnotes

Adam Styka was born in Poland into an artistic family, his father, Jan Styka, being a prominent Polish painter of grand historical, religious, and military subjects. Although his father wished him to be an architect, Styka persuaded him to allow his study at the Ècole des Beaux Arts, Paris. He exhibited his first paintings at the Grand Palais des Champs Elysées in 1911.

Taking advantage of the freedom to travel through French territories in North Africa, Styka was greatly influenced by the region, and it is here that he would turn to the Orientalist subjects for which he is best known. In 1913, he exhibited his first paintings of North African subjects, specifically of Algerian and Tunisian sun-drenched people and landscapes. This caused such as sensation that he was proclaimed as the 'Painter of the Sun' because his canvases looked as though they had been 'dipped in light.'

The present lot epitomises Styka's Orientalist painting. Here we see a group of men crowded around the negotiation taking place over the sale of a richly decorated carpet. The sun combines with the red earth and sand of the surrounding landscape to imbue the canvas with a rich rose gold light. Here, we can see both his interest in the human subjects of Orientalist painting, but also his great love for the landscape of North Africa.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant(French, 1845-1902)On the roofs

Louis Monro Grier(Australian, 1864-1920) St Ives, Cornwall

Edward Seago, RWS, RBA(British, 1910-1974)The lion of S. Mark - Venice

Sir Alfred James Munnings, PRA, RWS(British, 1878-1959)The leading horses of the Royal Carriage before the Ascot Procession, June 1925

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., ARA, RWS(British, 1833-1898)Portrait of Elsie York

Sidney Richard Percy(British, 1821-1886)The Barnmouth Water near Dolgelly, North Wales

Julius Olsson(British, 1864-1942)Summer Sea, Newquay

Alois Arnegger(Austrian, 1879-1967)Sunset, Untersberg

Edward Seago, RWS, RBA(British, 1910-1974)Old houses, Istanbul

Franz von Defregger(Austrian, 1835-1921)Touristen auf der Alm

John McGhie(British, 1867-1952)Dutch Fisherwomen and Child

Louis-François Cassas(Azay-le-Ferron 1756-1827 Versailles)Studies of Egyptian figures

Ken Howard R.A.(British, 1932-2022)Debora