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#0217
4. Witold Wrijtkiemcz
The Youngest Generation
of Pointers Enhancing
Their Talents mth Coffee
at the “U Kogiary” Café,
1904. Repro: Liberum
Veto, 1904, No. 8, p. 7.
cki-Miram and Karol Irzykowski, following Mau-
rice Maeterlinck, became particularly visible in the
painting of the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Hence, the dramatically sad and sombre
portraits by Olga Boznaňska; hence Night Math by
Leon Kaufmann;29 hence the melancholie landscapes
byjan Stanislawski, Ferdynand Ruszczyc’s paintings
pervaded by terror and Stanislaw Wyspiahski’s sym-
bolism-permeated landscapes; hence the motif of
dying autumn landscapes that recurred in the works
of Jan Stanislawski’s pupils, or in the nocturnes by
Ludwik de Laveaux.
A translater of the ideas promoted by the in-
defatigable instigator Stanislaw Przybyszewski into
the language of painting was his favourite, Wojciech
Weiss, who, besides Edvard Munch and Gustav
Vigeland, was the artist Przybyszewski respected
most. Already in 1898, Przybyszewski reproduced
Weiss’s painting Melancholie in his Ťycie and in 1900,
some of his other works, námely: Melancholie, Youth,
Self -Porteait with Apple, two versions of Spring, Portrait
21 In the collection of the Mazovian Museum in Plock.
of Parents, Dance, Kiss and Study. Przybyszewski also
used Weiss’s composition Chopin as an illustration
for his article “Ku czci mistrza” (“In Honour of the
Master”), published in ZjzA’0 in 1899. His gloomy
“De Profundis” was illustrated with Spring and Kiss
while a collection of essays “On the Paths of the
Soul” with Chopin and Youth. Wojciech Weiss’s paint-
ings and personality from 1898 — 1905 serve as a
great example of Krakow bohemianism inspired in
the city by Stanislaw Przybyszewski. This bohemian
épisode in Weiss’ artistic curriculum vitae seems to
hâve been started by a painting füll of eroticism
and decadence, dating from 1898, depicting Alfons
Karpinski and a naked model. The work of the
then young artist also shows a clear inspiration by
literatuře and the aura surrounding the leader of
décadents. An apathetic, resigned figure depicted in
Melancholie, also called Totenmesse, of 1898, is a clear
reference to Przybyszewski’s work with the same title,
published in 1893. Démon, dating from 1904, is not
only an allusion to the bohemian circle and lifestyle,
30 PRZYBYSZEWSKI, S.: Ku czci Mistrza fin Honor of the
Master]. In: Žycie, 3, 1899, Nos. 19-20, p. 1.
209
The Youngest Generation
of Pointers Enhancing
Their Talents mth Coffee
at the “U Kogiary” Café,
1904. Repro: Liberum
Veto, 1904, No. 8, p. 7.
cki-Miram and Karol Irzykowski, following Mau-
rice Maeterlinck, became particularly visible in the
painting of the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Hence, the dramatically sad and sombre
portraits by Olga Boznaňska; hence Night Math by
Leon Kaufmann;29 hence the melancholie landscapes
byjan Stanislawski, Ferdynand Ruszczyc’s paintings
pervaded by terror and Stanislaw Wyspiahski’s sym-
bolism-permeated landscapes; hence the motif of
dying autumn landscapes that recurred in the works
of Jan Stanislawski’s pupils, or in the nocturnes by
Ludwik de Laveaux.
A translater of the ideas promoted by the in-
defatigable instigator Stanislaw Przybyszewski into
the language of painting was his favourite, Wojciech
Weiss, who, besides Edvard Munch and Gustav
Vigeland, was the artist Przybyszewski respected
most. Already in 1898, Przybyszewski reproduced
Weiss’s painting Melancholie in his Ťycie and in 1900,
some of his other works, námely: Melancholie, Youth,
Self -Porteait with Apple, two versions of Spring, Portrait
21 In the collection of the Mazovian Museum in Plock.
of Parents, Dance, Kiss and Study. Przybyszewski also
used Weiss’s composition Chopin as an illustration
for his article “Ku czci mistrza” (“In Honour of the
Master”), published in ZjzA’0 in 1899. His gloomy
“De Profundis” was illustrated with Spring and Kiss
while a collection of essays “On the Paths of the
Soul” with Chopin and Youth. Wojciech Weiss’s paint-
ings and personality from 1898 — 1905 serve as a
great example of Krakow bohemianism inspired in
the city by Stanislaw Przybyszewski. This bohemian
épisode in Weiss’ artistic curriculum vitae seems to
hâve been started by a painting füll of eroticism
and decadence, dating from 1898, depicting Alfons
Karpinski and a naked model. The work of the
then young artist also shows a clear inspiration by
literatuře and the aura surrounding the leader of
décadents. An apathetic, resigned figure depicted in
Melancholie, also called Totenmesse, of 1898, is a clear
reference to Przybyszewski’s work with the same title,
published in 1893. Démon, dating from 1904, is not
only an allusion to the bohemian circle and lifestyle,
30 PRZYBYSZEWSKI, S.: Ku czci Mistrza fin Honor of the
Master]. In: Žycie, 3, 1899, Nos. 19-20, p. 1.
209