19th Century Polish Painting

Costumes Polonais. Albums with images of Polish folk costumes from the first half of the 19th century

At the turn of the 18th and 19th century in Poland the influence of practices common in other European countries (especially Germany) brought the growth of the scientific research on folklore. Both the search for national identity and the romantic idea, that folk culture, as the most primary, was the easiest way to find the source of Polish tradition, have contributed to the increased efforts in this field. As part of these interests arose projects, which collected, characterized and analyzed such typical element of material culture as the national costume, that was often identified with the peasants dress.
In Poland in the first decades of the 19th century the scientific publications on folklore began to emerge (eg. books by Łukasz Gołębiowski, Leon Zienkowicz or the so called "father of Polish ethnography” Oskar Kolberg). They were illustrated with prints showing the typical clothing from different regions of the country, which were usually performed by professional, well-known and respected artists. At the same time, some creators, regardless of the scientific research, led by their own fascination relating to folk motifs, made the series of projects on similar subjects. Sometimes they published them in form of a collector's album. Such prints were created, among others, by such important polish artists as Jan Piotr Norblin, Michał Stachowicz, Kajetan Wincenty Kielisiński or Wojciech Gerson.
In the current literature, works of art of this type were examined exclusively on the basis of ethnographic research (to mention here the articles and monographs by Jan Stanisław Bystroń, Aleksandra Jacher-Tyszkowa, Krzysztof Ruszel, Barbara Bazielich or Aleksander Błachowski). The topic of this studies was, first and foremost, their value as iconographic sources on the history of folk costume. The purpose of this article is to look at these prints from the point of view of art history, which apart from the assessment of the fidelity and accuracy of performance, allows to see their artistic qualities. The subject matter is not only stylistic and semantic aspect of this series of prints, but also the relationship between folklorists and artists, the reception and the overall impact of published works.

In 1823, Zbiór najpiękniejszych i najinteresowniejszych okolic w Galicji (The collection of most beautiful and most interesting landscapes in Galicia) was published, it contains 35 lithographs from the drawings of Antoni Lange; in 1836, an album 24 widoki Krakowa i jego okolic (24 views of Krakow and its surroundings) by Jan Nepomucen Głowacki. Both artists, in prints as well as in paintings, manifested their predilection for the style of Biedermeier, caused by the impact of artistic studies in Vienna. Formulas adopted during their education, derived from the tradition of the German ideal landscape painting, were associated with “homely” themes depicting important places and monuments of
the Galicia region. The aim of the article is to analyse their work in the context of Austrian Biedermeier art. An example of their activity, as a starting point, is to consider the problem of import and partial conversion of artistic convention, adapted to their own artistic experiments as well as to the expectations of local art recipients. The landscape art of Głowacki and Lange may become an illustration
of the wider issue of the influence of the culture of the capital city of the
Empire on the formation of the two most important artistic environments in the Austrian Partition in the 1st half of the 19th century.

In Polish and world painting, portraits of women have been one of the most common themes since the earliest times. They were also heroines of genre, symbolic and historical scenes. The signature of the woman as the author appeared much less frequently in the painting. It is not known who the first painter was in history, but many names have survived in legendary accounts and in the history of art. Perhaps the oldest signature-impression of a hand on the rocks of Altamira is indeed the work of a woman, as evidenced by the small size of the fixed hand? Research on the subject of women's artistic activity remains in the initial stage, but the difference between Polish and Western European cultures is clear. Maria Bogucka notices that in Polish painting only a few women have reached for a brush, which is primarily the result of the poor development of art in our country. In the West, in countries such as Italy or the Netherlands, where the art of painting flourished in the modern era, many women were engaged in this occupation as early as the 16th and 17th centuries. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, women more often chose art as a way of life, perhaps seeking independence or self-realization, although it was not always the straightforward path. One of the most interesting women artists was Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowiczowa, whose paintings are also stored in the Podlaskie Museum in Bialystok.

The article describes a turning point in an individual artistic development as a result of emigration and study abroad. The discussion centers on three artists from Vilnius, who after receiving initial training, left to study at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. The decision to leave their home city was forced by the changes in the political situation. In 1832, as a result of the repressions in the aftermath of the November Uprising, the Vilnius University was closed, and so was its school of painting. For each of the artists examined in this article, the years of study at the Saint Petersburg Academy became a turning point in the development of their personal style, though each of them chose a different artistic path: Ignacy Szczedrowski was inspired by the so-called "Venetsianov school of painting", Konstanty Kukiewicz learned from the old Dutch genre and battle paintings, and Tadeusz Gorecki was influenced by the approved academic doctrine. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how a stay in Saint Petersburg completely changed the approach of the three painters to art, and left its imprint not only on their artistic achievements, but also on the course of their painting careers and personal lives.

The subject of discussion is a painting by Szczesny Morawski, a painter from Lviv from the middle of the 19th century, entitled Zebrzydowski’s Apology – currently lost, and probably never finished. In the collection of the Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine there are four sketches of this composition from the former collection of Aleksander Batowski, which allow (along with source materials – letters, author’s own notes, memoirs of people from his circle and press reports) to at least partially reconstruct the concept of the artist and the process of creating the work. The analysis is carried out in the context of Morawski’s theoretical statement on his vision of historical painting as closely linked to scientific and archaeological research. The final goal of the article is an attempt to explain the reasons why the painting work on this composition was stopped. This was probably related to the negative reception of the artist’s paintings, the arduousness of artistic technique and the evolution of Morawski’s interests towards writing and historical activity.

Drawn from nature by Przyszychowski. The artistic vision of the Ukrainian countryside in the Warsaw press of the second half of the 19th century.
The aim of the article is to analyse the role of art in shaping the vision of Ukraine in Warsaw circles after the January Uprising of 1863 on the basis of works by Kazimierz Konstanty Przyszychowski (1838–1917). After studying at the Academy in Munich, Przyszychowski returned to the family estate in the Kiev province. Despite living far from the main cultural centres, he managed to develop a distinct form of artistic expression. In the 1860s and 1870s he was sending sketches of local characteristic types, scenes from village life and landscapes to the capital’s magazines. They became the basis for nearly 60 illustrations later published in the “Tygodnik Ilustrowany” weekly magazine. The artist’s drawings were characterised by meticulous reproduction of folk costumes and local customs. The article describes the specifics of Przyszychowski’s works in the broader context of the utopian myth of the poetic and idyllic “Mother Ukraine” in the Polish art.

Ugly faces, ugly hearts. The influence of the physiognomy on the art of Feliks Pęczarski

The article is the presentation of the hypothesis concerning the connections between genre paintings of Feliks Pęczarski and the physiognomic theories. This partly magical knowledge, dating back to the antiquity, assumes the possibility of judging about the human character and intellectual features by the analysis of the superficies and, especially, the features of the face. Publicity and significance of the physiognomy in the turn of the 18th and 19th century were generated by the works of Johann Caspar Lavater, which had a massive impact on many European artists (inter alia Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson, Théodore’a Géricault, Joseph Ducreux, Franza Xavera Messerschmidta). The genre paintings of Feliks Pęczarski are unusual for the Polish art of that time both in the aspect of motifs (financial and card deceptions, money-lenders, drinkers) and the characteristic of persons. Researches expounded exaggerated grimaces and gestures as well as almost grotesque face features by the influences of the Netherlands art and artist’s deafness. However, it seems that this factors were not the only ones, which played a part in the forming of his art. Often used by Pęczarski division between negative and positive characters, based on the caricature and the accented mimics, is consisted with the main ideas of physiognomic theories. It is hard to prove that Feliks Pęczarski could know the old or contemporary physiognomic works. However, the indirect influences appear to be possible: the references to the style of other painters and graphic artists interested in the physiognomy (mainly from the “school from Düsseldorf”) as well as the press articles and literary works inspired by this science (so called “physiognomic pictures”).

Referat podejmuje kwestię popularności w środowisku warszawskim kompozycji Graneta przedstawiającej wnętrze kościoła Kapucynów w Rzymie, znanej i cenionej w całej Europie z wielu autorskich wersji. Jedno z oryginalnych płócien francuskiego malarza, należące do zbiorów hrabiego Paca, stało się wzorem dla licznych kopii, poczynając od 1823 roku, kiedy obraz olejny Henryka Zabiełły zyskał spore uznanie podczas warszawskiej wystawy sztuk pięknych. W następnych latach Fryderyk Dietrich wykonał wersję graficzną, a kolejni malarze – kopie wykonywane na zamówienia klasztorów.  Referat jest próbą odtworzenia losów zarówno oryginalnego obrazu, jak i jego replik, a także rozwinięcia problematyki „mód” w malarstwie religijnym I połowy XIX wieku na podstawie recepcji analizowanych prac w środowisku polskim.

The article describes the aspect of a turning point in an individual artistic development as a result of emigration and studies abroad. The basis for the discussion are profiles of three artists from Vilnius, who after receiving initial training, left to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg. The decision to leave their home city was forced by changes in the political situation. In 1832, as a result of repressions in the aftermath of the November Uprising, the Vilnius University was closed, and so was its school of painting. For each of the artists discussed in an article, the years of studies at the Saint Petersburg Academy became a turning point in the development of their personal style, though each of them chose a different artistic path: Ignacy Szczedrowski was inspired by the so-called “Venetsianov school of painting”, Konstanty Kukiewicz learned from the old Dutch genre and battle paintings, and Tadeusz Gorecki was influenced by the approved academic doctrine. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how a stay in Saint Petersburg completely changed the approach of the three painters to art, and left its imprint not only on their artistic achievements, but also on the course of their painting careers and personal lives.

During his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Henryk Siemiradzki was regarded as an “academic artist by conviction”, devoted to the ancient Greek and Roman culture. His heated discussion with Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov, in which Siemiradzki declared himself to be in the pursuit of the perfect beauty without “halting in the mud of mankind”, became a legend. In fact, the subject matter of his paintings from the time of learning (due to the university guidelines) most often referred to ancient and biblical history. However, in the 1860s Siemiradzki also created several genre paintings illustrating contemporary life with mainly Ukrainian and Russian folk motifs. The aim of the article is an attempt to analyze the role which these genre scenes played in the early works of the later master. From the artist’s letters and records in his notebooks it appears that in the days preceding his artistic studies and in the early years at the Academy, Siemiradzki admired genre scenes by other artists and also tried his hand at creating some of his own. In the genre painting he appreciated the truth of observation and the ability to awaken emotions in a viewer. He also noticed that similar works could bring popularity and financial success, both of which were important for a young artist. Such paintings as The Coffin Trader and The Saint Andrew’s Night were created by Siemiradzki for public exhibitions, while others were painted on special orders by private recipients. Looking for a naturalness of expression and emotional themes, the painter often searched for inspirations in the works of old masters and contemporary artists, both Russian and European. Considering his work in the context of mid-19th-century art, it is clearly visible that Siemiradzki was strongly influenced by the then popular convention and standard iconographic motifs in use. With the advancement of his studies and the subsequent successes of his historical works, Siemiradzki painted scenes from everyday life less and less frequently. It was a period of crystallization for his own artistic path. The final aspect of the article, however, is to indicate what role these early experiments with the contemporary genre motifs played in the formation of the mature style of the painter.

Znany XIX-wieczny malarz poznański, Marian Jaroczyński, po ukończeniu berlińskiej Akademii, spędził lata 1844-1846 w Kórniku na swego rodzaju "stypendium" u hr. Tytusa Działyńskiego. Dotąd wymieniano tylko dwa płótna jego autorstwa, wykonane przezeń w tym czasie dla kościołów Kórnika i Bnina. Autor monografii artystycznej kórnickiej kolegiaty poszerzył zespół tych dzieł o kolejne trzy, które również atrybuował Jaroczyńskiemu, przy okazji wskazując na ich artystyczną genezę i dokonując ich interpretacji. Wszystkie one znajdują się dziś w świątyniach parafii kórnickiej - dawnej kolegiacie farnej i kaplicy w Pierzchnie.

Streszczenie Artykuł stanowi przegląd polskiego malarstwa rodzajowego z drugiej połowy XIX wieku, które przedstawia życie codzienne na wsi, uwarunkowane czasem agrarnym i liturgicz-nym. Materiał ten jest dla autorki podstawą do scharakteryzowania niejednoznacznej mentalności chłopskiej, którą cechują krańcowości. Z jednej strony jest to ciężka praca na roli, z drugiej-zabawy i pijaństwo w karczmie, a z trzeciej-gorliwa pobożność, przejawiająca się stawianiem przydrożnych kapliczek i bogatymi rytuałami religijnymi odprawianymi przy okazji rozmaitych świąt oraz ważnych wydarzeń rodzinnych, jak śluby czy pogrzeby.