Exhibition „With Heart and Eyes. Vincentas Sleńdziński (1838–1909)“, March 3 – November 27, 2026

Retrospective exhibition on the life and work of Vincas Slendzinskis, one of the most famous Lithuanian painters of the second half of the 19th century "With Heart and Eyes. Wincenty Sleńdziński (1838–1909)", March 3, 2026 – November 27, 2026, Vilnius Picture Gallery, Vilnius. 

Wincenty. He was many things, just like the life that tossed him around. 

The beginnings were full of promise. Raised in an artist’s family, he became an artist himself, his talent surpassing that of his father Aleksander (1803–1878), who was also his first teacher. He studied painting under Kanuty Rusiecki (1800–1860), and later continued his studies in Moscow, where he acquired the foundations of academic drawing and realistic painting. The power of an artist’s brush was very strong – in his early youth in Vilnius, he created his finest paintings and uncovered his musical abilities. Wincenty became a pupil of Stanisław Moniuszko (1819–1872), and the violin he acquired accompanied him throughout his life. Wincenty was firmly integrated into Vilnius’s cultural milieu, but fate had its own plans. Though not particularly active in the national liberation uprising, he was nonetheless sentenced to an exile of nearly two decades. First in Nizhny Novgorod, then in Kharkiv Governorate, with a brief respite in Kraków and Dresden. In the Russian provinces, there were no opportunities for his painterly talents to flourish, but precisely there, Wincenty’s inclination towards literature and ethical reflection emerged. In Kharkiv, he was sustained by portrait commissions, whilst spending his leisure time making music.

Having returned to Vilnius and married a widow with four children, and welcoming his own descendants, Wincenty managed as best he could – he painted hundreds of excellent and not-so-excellent pictures. Everything yielded to his brush – he tried all possible painting genres. As in a kaleidoscope, his portraits gave way to landscapes, genre scenes, and paintings with historical, mythological or religious subjects. There were also his literary experiments. His finest works demonstrate an ability to look deep, astonishing with their striking perception and psychological expression. The works that emerged from everyday routine reveal Wincenty’s nature not only to see unembellished life, but also to feel it with his heart – to convey the most delicate nuances of the soul.