The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 5 (191), 1568—1571
UDK 75.036:7.071.1
- Received: 07.07.2026
- Accepted: 01.09.2026
- Published: ??.??.2026
THE IMAGE OF MAN AND THE ROAD IN THE WORKS OF JUZEF JAROSZYNSKI: BETWEEN ROMANTICISM AND REALISM
DUTKA Vasyl
- ORCID ID: https//orcid.org/0000-0002-4263-9713
- Associate Professor, Kosiv State Institute
- of Decorative Arts (KSIDA), Department
- of Fine Arts and Academic Disciplines,
- 2 Mickevycha St., 78600, Kosiv, Ukraine,
- Contacts: e-mail: artdutka@gmail.com
Abstract. Introduction. The article offers a comprehensive analysis of the work of Józef Jaroszyński within the context of Central European art of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with a particular focus on the image of the human figure and the road as key worldview and compositional motifs in his painting.
Results. The study examines the interplay between Romantic and Realist tendencies in the artist’s visual language, as well as the specificity of his ethically idealized vision of the human presence within the Carpathian landscape. Drawing on formal-stylistic and cultural-historical analyses of selected paintings and graphic interpretations, the research identifies principles of spatial construction, rhythm, and movement, in which the road functions as a semantic axis uniting the figure, the community, and the natural environment. It is demonstrated that ethnographic motifs in Jaroszyński’s work are not reduced to decorative stylization but serve as a means of shaping a coherent artistic model of an ordered world. The article substantiates the artist’s position as a representative of «quiet Romanticism», characteristic of the Central European tradition, and defines the relevance of his legacy for contemporary art-historical and educational discourse.
Conclusion. The study found that Józef Jaroszyński’s work goes beyond a narrow genre-ethnographic interpretation and emerges as a coherent artistic system with a distinct ethical and worldview dimension. The images of people and roads perform a conceptual function in his paintings, forming a model of an orderly world in which movement and community are understood as natural components of existence.
It has been proven that the motif of the road is the semantic axis of the compositions, which unites people, the community, and the landscape, while at the same time serving as a metaphor for the path of life without dramatic conflict. An analysis of stylistic features reveals an organic combination of academic discipline, realistic concreteness, and «quiet romanticism» characteristic of the Central European artistic tradition of the late 19th century.
The legacy of Józef Jaroszyński is relevant to contemporary art history and art education as an example of working with local tradition without reducing it to folkloric stylization and as a model of an ethically balanced vision of the interaction between people, community, and nature.
Keywords: Józef Jaroszyński, image of the road, image of man, Carpathian landscape, ethnographic motif, romanticism and realism, Central European artistic tradition, ethically idealized vision.
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