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DOI Artikel:Polanowska, Jolanta: Helena Skirmunttowa, zapomniana rzeźbiarka XIX w.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49354#0131
Helena Skirmunttowa: a forgotten sculptress of the 19th century
125
Helena Skirmunttowa: a forgotten sculptress
of the 19th century
Helena Skirmunttowa (1827-1874), a draughts(wo)man,
amator painter and sculptress who has been ac-
knowledged as being the first Polish woman to 'seri-
ously occupy herself with sculpture in the 19th
century', has remained a little-known artist. Her 'Di-
ary of a journey from Pinsk to Tambov' (Dziennik
podróży z Pińska do Tambowa), containing episodes
of descriptions from her transportation to Siberia
(untranslated) is the first known written account by
this Polish artist. Numerous works by Skirmunttowa
had already become widely dispersed throughout the
estates ofPolesia and Lithuania during her lifetime,
while many others went up in flames when the
Skirmuntt family residence at Pinsk was burnt down
in 1901. Most of her works are known only from
photographs contained in a file titled 'Sculptures,
pictures and drawings saved from the disasters of
1863-1915' (Rzeźby, malowidła, rysunki, ocalałe w
klęskach 1863-1915 r); copies of this file have been
preserved in the Drawing Cabinet of the Ossoliński
Library in Wrocław and Institute of Art (IS PAN)
Library in Warsaw. The article aims to view
Skirmuttowa's creative work from the wider per-
spective of 19th-century art in general, as well as in
the context of the professional question of the fe-
male artist's emancipation.
Helena Skirmunttowa (or Skirmuntowa) origi-
nated from an ancient Lithuanian family which drew
its beginnings from the line of the Kunigas, pagan
princes of pre-conversion Lithuania. Her father was
Aleksander Skirmuntt, marshal to the pre-partition
administrative district of Pinsk, while her mother,
Hortensja of the Ordas, was daughter of Michał
Orda, marshal of the Kobryn (Kobryń) district (both
areas now lying in the Republic of Belarus), as well
as being the sister of the draughtsman and watercol-
our painter Napoleon Orda (1807-1883). Helena
was born on 5th November 1827 in the family estate
of Kolodno (Kołodno) near Pinsk, and it was here
that she lived following her marriage to a distant
relative, Kazimierz Skirmuntt, son of (another)
Aleksander, owner of numerous industrialised es-
tates in Lithuania, the Crimea and Italy, as well as
the close friend of her mother's, Konstancja of the
Sulistrowskis, wife to the marshal of Lithuania. The
brother of her husband was another painter, Szymon
Skirmuntt (1835-1902), who was active mainly in
France and Italy. Having avidly drawn since child-
hood, Skirmunttowa received lessons in painting by
Wincenty Dmowski, while in 1844 and 1845 she was
taught at Wilhelm Krause's studio in Berlin, as well
as in Dresden. From 1852 to 1854 she learnt sculp-
ture, initially in Vienna, at the workshop of medallist
and sculptor Joseph Cesar, before moving onto
Rome, where she was taught by the sculptors Pietro
Galli i Luigi Amici. It was at this time that she be-
came acquainted with the painter Johann Friedrich
Overbeck.
In October 1854 Skirmunttowa returned to
Kołodno, where she set up her own sculptural work-
shop and also began to develop contacts with artists
based in Warsaw, following artistic life exclusively
in the pages of Warsaw papers and periodicals. The
ensuing years were passed in intensive study and
unsupervised sculptural work. It was not until the
period preceding the January Insurrection that,
alongside her husband, she became involved in pa-
triotic-cum-social activities. In the June of 1863,
when the Uprising spread to the region of Kołodno,
Skirmunttowa was arrested for attempting to send
dispatches to Romuald Traugutt in Warsaw. Follow-
ing a four-month house arrest in the family pałace of
Pinsk, she was banished to Siberia, spending the
years 1863-7 in Tambov, although in 1869 she was
able to move to the Crimea, where she settled down
in Balaklava. Her state of health seriously deterio-
rated in 1873 and she died on lst February 1874 , in
the town of Amelie-les-Bains in the Pyrenees.
Skirmunttowa's rich artistic output comprises her
amateurish oeuvre of drawings and paintings and the
sculpture work she carried out from 1852 onwards.
Her paintings consisted mainly of portraits; espe-
cially of family members and neighbours, as well as
some genre scenes. She also carried out numerous
bas-relief medallions featuring portraits, among oth-
ers of personalities connected with public life. From
the 1850s she took up religious themes, including
sculptured objects such as crucifixes and paschal
candles. Subsequently she moved onto historical
themes, designing in 1870 a cycle of bas-reliefs
(plaques and triptychs) depicting supposed like-
nesses of the ancient heroes of Lithuania. The most
widely known work by this artist is her uncompleted
'Historical Chess Set' (Szachy historyczne), which
presents John III Sobieski's military expedition
against the Turks outside Vienna upon which she
worked in stages from 1864 to the year of her death.
Her artistic work has been placed mainly in the cur-
rent known as 'Polish "Nazarenism'".
The letters and descriptions of Helena
Skirmunttowa, containing numerous observations
relating to customs and of her time, tell a great deal
125
Helena Skirmunttowa: a forgotten sculptress
of the 19th century
Helena Skirmunttowa (1827-1874), a draughts(wo)man,
amator painter and sculptress who has been ac-
knowledged as being the first Polish woman to 'seri-
ously occupy herself with sculpture in the 19th
century', has remained a little-known artist. Her 'Di-
ary of a journey from Pinsk to Tambov' (Dziennik
podróży z Pińska do Tambowa), containing episodes
of descriptions from her transportation to Siberia
(untranslated) is the first known written account by
this Polish artist. Numerous works by Skirmunttowa
had already become widely dispersed throughout the
estates ofPolesia and Lithuania during her lifetime,
while many others went up in flames when the
Skirmuntt family residence at Pinsk was burnt down
in 1901. Most of her works are known only from
photographs contained in a file titled 'Sculptures,
pictures and drawings saved from the disasters of
1863-1915' (Rzeźby, malowidła, rysunki, ocalałe w
klęskach 1863-1915 r); copies of this file have been
preserved in the Drawing Cabinet of the Ossoliński
Library in Wrocław and Institute of Art (IS PAN)
Library in Warsaw. The article aims to view
Skirmuttowa's creative work from the wider per-
spective of 19th-century art in general, as well as in
the context of the professional question of the fe-
male artist's emancipation.
Helena Skirmunttowa (or Skirmuntowa) origi-
nated from an ancient Lithuanian family which drew
its beginnings from the line of the Kunigas, pagan
princes of pre-conversion Lithuania. Her father was
Aleksander Skirmuntt, marshal to the pre-partition
administrative district of Pinsk, while her mother,
Hortensja of the Ordas, was daughter of Michał
Orda, marshal of the Kobryn (Kobryń) district (both
areas now lying in the Republic of Belarus), as well
as being the sister of the draughtsman and watercol-
our painter Napoleon Orda (1807-1883). Helena
was born on 5th November 1827 in the family estate
of Kolodno (Kołodno) near Pinsk, and it was here
that she lived following her marriage to a distant
relative, Kazimierz Skirmuntt, son of (another)
Aleksander, owner of numerous industrialised es-
tates in Lithuania, the Crimea and Italy, as well as
the close friend of her mother's, Konstancja of the
Sulistrowskis, wife to the marshal of Lithuania. The
brother of her husband was another painter, Szymon
Skirmuntt (1835-1902), who was active mainly in
France and Italy. Having avidly drawn since child-
hood, Skirmunttowa received lessons in painting by
Wincenty Dmowski, while in 1844 and 1845 she was
taught at Wilhelm Krause's studio in Berlin, as well
as in Dresden. From 1852 to 1854 she learnt sculp-
ture, initially in Vienna, at the workshop of medallist
and sculptor Joseph Cesar, before moving onto
Rome, where she was taught by the sculptors Pietro
Galli i Luigi Amici. It was at this time that she be-
came acquainted with the painter Johann Friedrich
Overbeck.
In October 1854 Skirmunttowa returned to
Kołodno, where she set up her own sculptural work-
shop and also began to develop contacts with artists
based in Warsaw, following artistic life exclusively
in the pages of Warsaw papers and periodicals. The
ensuing years were passed in intensive study and
unsupervised sculptural work. It was not until the
period preceding the January Insurrection that,
alongside her husband, she became involved in pa-
triotic-cum-social activities. In the June of 1863,
when the Uprising spread to the region of Kołodno,
Skirmunttowa was arrested for attempting to send
dispatches to Romuald Traugutt in Warsaw. Follow-
ing a four-month house arrest in the family pałace of
Pinsk, she was banished to Siberia, spending the
years 1863-7 in Tambov, although in 1869 she was
able to move to the Crimea, where she settled down
in Balaklava. Her state of health seriously deterio-
rated in 1873 and she died on lst February 1874 , in
the town of Amelie-les-Bains in the Pyrenees.
Skirmunttowa's rich artistic output comprises her
amateurish oeuvre of drawings and paintings and the
sculpture work she carried out from 1852 onwards.
Her paintings consisted mainly of portraits; espe-
cially of family members and neighbours, as well as
some genre scenes. She also carried out numerous
bas-relief medallions featuring portraits, among oth-
ers of personalities connected with public life. From
the 1850s she took up religious themes, including
sculptured objects such as crucifixes and paschal
candles. Subsequently she moved onto historical
themes, designing in 1870 a cycle of bas-reliefs
(plaques and triptychs) depicting supposed like-
nesses of the ancient heroes of Lithuania. The most
widely known work by this artist is her uncompleted
'Historical Chess Set' (Szachy historyczne), which
presents John III Sobieski's military expedition
against the Turks outside Vienna upon which she
worked in stages from 1864 to the year of her death.
Her artistic work has been placed mainly in the cur-
rent known as 'Polish "Nazarenism'".
The letters and descriptions of Helena
Skirmunttowa, containing numerous observations
relating to customs and of her time, tell a great deal