DOI issue:
Nr. 2
DOI article:Kozakowska-Zaucha, Urszula: Decadents, pessimists and neo-romantics, or, young Poland and bohemianism in Krakow
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51715#0215
2. Inferior of Jama Mi-
chalika caß in Krakow.
Photo: Studio ST.
One more venue of the city bohemians was
Schmidt’s café on the corner of Szewska Street
and the Market Square, where, however, “Krakow
philistineß’27’ sometimes disturbed artists. Accord-
ing to a painter Marcin Samlicki, professors of the
Academy of Fine Arts, who, despite their official
academie positions, were actively involved in the
life of the bohemian circle, spent a lot of time in
Franciszek Sauer’s café on the corner of Slawkowska
and Szczepanska Streets. In that coffee house there
was a “table of scoffers”, permanently occupied by
important painters: Teodor Axentowicz (portraitist,
interested in genre-scenes — usually from the life
of the Hutsul highlanders from the Eastern Car-
pathians), Wlodzimierz Tetmajer (painted above all
characteristic genre scenes on Polish country thèmes,
inspired by life in Bronowice near Krakow), Wojciech
Weiss (portraitist, painted also nudes, symbolic com-
positions and landscapes, a member of the “Sztuka”
Society of Polish Artists and Viennese Secession)
and Jacek Malczewski (one of the most outstanding
23 WAŠKOWSKI, A.: ’/.najomi y tamtych c^asóiv (literaci, malar^e,
aktor%f) 1892 — 1939 [Friends from Those Days (Writers,
Painters, Actors) 1892 - 1939], Krakow 1956, p. 76.
Polish artists; a painter whose great artistic Output
included works of very difficult, sometimes indeci-
pherable content, oscillating between the problems
of life, death and love, as well as between Romantic
visions and metaphysics). Samlicki writes that when-
ever Malczewski entered Sauer’s café, the crowd
cheered loudly and enthusiastically.23 24 Another trendy
spot was the Noworolski Café in the Cloth Hall (Su-
kiennice), frequented by almost the same painters as
well as the actors: Juliusz Osterwa and Ludwik Solski
and the actress Stanislawa Wysocka. Professors of
the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts also met in the
café in Grand Hotel in Slawkowska Street.
Significantly, the most influential addressees of
Przybyszewski’s views were professors of the School
of Fine Arts, reformed by Julian Falat in 1897 and
turned into an Academy. The Academy attracted
prominent artistic personalities who had an enor-
mous impact on the ambitions and opinion-forming
“Sztuka” Society of Polish Artists. The uniqueness
of such an assembly of prominent individuals and
24 SAMLICKI, M.: Pamiçtniki [Memoirs]. [s.L, s.a.], manuscript
in the collection of the S. Fischer Museum in Bochnia (Po-
land).
207
chalika caß in Krakow.
Photo: Studio ST.
One more venue of the city bohemians was
Schmidt’s café on the corner of Szewska Street
and the Market Square, where, however, “Krakow
philistineß’27’ sometimes disturbed artists. Accord-
ing to a painter Marcin Samlicki, professors of the
Academy of Fine Arts, who, despite their official
academie positions, were actively involved in the
life of the bohemian circle, spent a lot of time in
Franciszek Sauer’s café on the corner of Slawkowska
and Szczepanska Streets. In that coffee house there
was a “table of scoffers”, permanently occupied by
important painters: Teodor Axentowicz (portraitist,
interested in genre-scenes — usually from the life
of the Hutsul highlanders from the Eastern Car-
pathians), Wlodzimierz Tetmajer (painted above all
characteristic genre scenes on Polish country thèmes,
inspired by life in Bronowice near Krakow), Wojciech
Weiss (portraitist, painted also nudes, symbolic com-
positions and landscapes, a member of the “Sztuka”
Society of Polish Artists and Viennese Secession)
and Jacek Malczewski (one of the most outstanding
23 WAŠKOWSKI, A.: ’/.najomi y tamtych c^asóiv (literaci, malar^e,
aktor%f) 1892 — 1939 [Friends from Those Days (Writers,
Painters, Actors) 1892 - 1939], Krakow 1956, p. 76.
Polish artists; a painter whose great artistic Output
included works of very difficult, sometimes indeci-
pherable content, oscillating between the problems
of life, death and love, as well as between Romantic
visions and metaphysics). Samlicki writes that when-
ever Malczewski entered Sauer’s café, the crowd
cheered loudly and enthusiastically.23 24 Another trendy
spot was the Noworolski Café in the Cloth Hall (Su-
kiennice), frequented by almost the same painters as
well as the actors: Juliusz Osterwa and Ludwik Solski
and the actress Stanislawa Wysocka. Professors of
the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts also met in the
café in Grand Hotel in Slawkowska Street.
Significantly, the most influential addressees of
Przybyszewski’s views were professors of the School
of Fine Arts, reformed by Julian Falat in 1897 and
turned into an Academy. The Academy attracted
prominent artistic personalities who had an enor-
mous impact on the ambitions and opinion-forming
“Sztuka” Society of Polish Artists. The uniqueness
of such an assembly of prominent individuals and
24 SAMLICKI, M.: Pamiçtniki [Memoirs]. [s.L, s.a.], manuscript
in the collection of the S. Fischer Museum in Bochnia (Po-
land).
207