Introduction

INTRODUCTION

PAINTING
IN POLAND

IN GALLERY

Polish paintings at the Piłsudski Institute

By Janusz Wałek, curator of paintings at the Czartoryski Museum

of the National Museum of Krakow

This sizable collection of oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and illustrations (over 240 items) is most noteworthy because it contains the works of many outstanding Polish painters, including Jan Matejko, Juliusz Kossak, Józef Brandt, Wojciech Gerson, Leon Wyczółkowski, Aleksander Gierymski, Julian Fałat, Jacek Malczewski and Stanisław Wyspiański. Not every museum can boast such names!

The paintings, to be sure, are not the best-known works of these artists—those can only be found these days in the largest national museums in Poland. Yet suitably displayed in a permanent collection, or reproduced in an album or a catalog, these works convey a sense of each of the painters, and thus of Polish art and Poland in the last two hundred years.

The Matejko drawing of a carriage, “A Horse-drawn Coach,” gives a glimpse of the great artist and his method. It is the first spontaneous vision of an idea, sketched with pencil and brush for a historical scene. “A Young Girl” by Wyspiański shows in a very legible way the essential elements of this great creator’s artistic language, his bold lines building a clear and decorative form. The painting conveys that special melancholy expression typical of faces, especially children’s faces, in Wyspiański’s portraits. “Four In Hand” by Chełmoński, known from several versions of the scene painted by the artist, is one of the most popular Polish paintings, full of energy and motion although it presents but a small episode of life in the eastern borderland of Poland. A splendid watercolor by Juliusz Kossak “Cavalryman Crossing the River Dniestr” and the oil painting by January Suchodolski, “The Defense of Częstochowa” take us back to the turbulent 17th century and could be illustrations for the world famous and still best-selling trilogy of Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz. An early work by Aleksander Gierymski, “Scene Before the Duel” is a good introduction to the interplay of color and light, which became the artist’s main interest in his later Impressionist period.

 

Chełmoński, Józef (1849-1914)
“Four-in-hand”, oil on canvas, (1881?), unsigned, 38" x 92"

Donated by Alexander Mełeń-Korczyński, 1977

In the Pilsudski Institute collection there are beautiful Polish landscapes, views of the Tatra Mountains (Stanisław Witkiewicz and Wojciech Gerson) and cityscapes of Kraków, Warsaw, Lwów, Lublin and their characteristic architecture. One should especially note the sensitive renditions of the old market in Kraków and the towers of St. Mary’s Church (a beautiful nocturne) by Władyslaw Jarocki and by Leon Wyczółkowski. Polish folklore is represented by a beautiful folk rendering of “Virgin Mary” by Józef Mehoffer.
 

Wyczółkowski, Leon (1852-1936)
“Cloth Hall and Towers of St. Mary's Church”, water color, signed, 25" x 17"

Also present in the collection is a strong representation of patriotic Polish art, portraying among otherthemes, participants in the struggle for independence, such as “1863 Uprising” by Juliusz Kossak and numerous portrayals of Józef Piłsudski and episodes of the struggles of his legion in the First World War: “Pilsudski in the Trenches at Kostiuchnówka” by Leopold Gottlieb, scenes from the Second World War by Zdzis?aw Czermaƒski, “Warsaw’s Ghetto” and “Warsaw Uprising, 1944” as well as scenes from the events of 1980.

The collection includes individual portraits of well known and important personages such as Nicholas Copernicus, Tadeusz Kościuszko, Fryderyk Chopin, General Józef Haller, Jan Lechoń, Father Maksymilian Kolbe— in effect a Polish portrait gallery.

Each collection of paintings, when presented publicly in a gallery or an album or catalog, needs special clarification. In the last several years world museums, including American ones, have tended to provide descriptions to accompany works exhibited or reproduced in albums. These commentaries facilitate the appreciation of art and widen its impact on society.

Such comments are generally not limited to artistic analysis, which is often formal, scholarly and written in the language or pseudo-language of art history, but they examine the works in many different aspects: Historical—explaining events, participants and the periods involved, Manners and Customs—comments on fashion, local customs and architecture, and Religious—explaining local cults, holidays, and so on

The Polish paintings at the Piłsudski Institute in New York come mainly from an expert collector of Polish paintings, the late Aleksander Mełeń-Korczyński, who donated his collection to the Institute and from Madame Janina Czermański, widow of the artist Zdzisław Czermański, and many other donors. The Piłsudski Institute collection represents an excellent visual and verbal presentation of Poland, her history, culture and art, in the permanent gallery or the richly illustrated catalog.