Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

Józef Pankiewicz is one of the artists who, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, led to the autonomy of graphic as an independent form of artistic expression and to its detachment from illustrative and reproductive functions. The artist created about one hundred graphics, dominated by landscape reminiscences from journeys and views of visited cities. Pankiewicz usually used etching and the dry needle techniques, which best expressed his artistic sensitivity. The apparent limitation of graphic, resulting from the narrowing of the colour scale to black and white, was not an obstacle for him. The view of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was published in 1903 in the Portfolio of the Association of Polish Graphic Artists, which popularised graphic art. The publication was made possible thanks to the efforts of Feliks “Manggha” Jasieński, one of the greatest enthusiasts of graphic art and advocate of liberating this artistic discipline from the domination of painting.