Would James Abbott McNeill Whistler Be Pleased With This Painting?

Hi Friends,

I found this painting (I think it's a watercolor) last week in a thrift store and
have some questions . . .

1) Would you consider it abstract? I'm not sure since nocturne paintings by their nature depict low light scenarios. It looks a bit abstract to me. My best guess is a moonlit forest scene, perhaps with a lake in it.

2) What on earth is the artist's first name? I can't make it out though it's typed on the back of the framing.

3) Is the artist published or yet another unknown amateur?

I tried "Stykowa," "Stykowa Artist," etc. in different search engines, but kept getting breadboard images and a bunch of thread links in another language (Polish?).

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

Looks more like a drawing to me, although I'm not sure in what medium.

 

Is it not some kind of print or etching?

 

Looks like a landscape at night, JMHO but I don't see anything abstract in it

 

A work by this artist is included in this text, "PROBLEMS OF AMATEUR ART". Originally published in Polish. I pulled this from it ...

There are also amateurs who have reached the ranks of professionals by cultivating their own, limited, but beautiful formula. so-called naive and others able to create a separate atmosphere of their painting, consistent in poetics, realized in a mature painting manner. Examples include Płonków, Piprekowa (Fig. 15), Radke (Fig. 16), Daszewska (Fig. 32). Michałowska (Fig. 14), Rząb (Fig. 35), Surowiak (Fig. 19), Mickiewiczowa, Śliwiński (Fig. 53, 54), Stykowa (Fig. 51), and Henryk Zegadło will probably cross this threshold of maturity soon.

51. Janina Stykowa, Slota, watercolor, ink, 21 X 29.5 cm. Cracow

 

Great find, Roaring! Janina was a thought. Now it's confirmed. Looks like maybe her full name is Janina Hadiak Stykowa.

On their web site, Przekrój” (“p-SHEH-crooy”), which claims to be "the oldest society and culture magazine in Poland," appears to have a photo of a newspaper article from '61 about her: https://przekroj.pl/archiwum/autorzy/janina-hadiak-stykowa?sortuj=najstarsze&dekada=1960.

 

Alas, I'm so terrible at distinguishing mediums. Unless there is another one out there to compare it to, I'll probably have to de-frame it to tell.

 

"De-frame" Sounds a bit dirty, doesn't it?

Debora

 

Interesting artwork. I think the medium was particularly difficult to identify in this case (Also I still know very little about art but I hope to get better)