DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31381#0013
The History and Characteristics of the Collection
Already the first statute of the National Museum in Cracow (called to life on 7th October
1879), passed on 1st and 8th March 1883 by the City Council, claimed that the aim of the
Museum is to demonstrate through collected specimens the state of art in Poland in its
entire historical and current development In this way two principal directions were set for
the activity of the first Polish public museum: to collect works of older art and to document
current artistic activities. In both of these areas the Museum’s collections have been shaped
on one hand owing to various donations and long-term deposits and on the other owing
to purchases meant to programmatically supplement the collection. Public generosity, in
great measure motivated by patriotism, coupled with the scarcity of financial means at the
disposal of the Museum led to the situation in which — especially in the earHer period
— the Museum’s resources were considerably decided by donations.
The nucleus of the collection of contemporary art the National Museum
owes to artists themselves. The direct impulse to create the Museum became, on 5th
October 1879, the presentation to the city of the huge painting “Nero’s Torches” by its
author, Henryk Siemiradzki, in the course of celebrations of Jozef Ignacy Kraszewski’s
literary anniversary. On the next day thirty nine Polish artists declared their willingness to
enrich with their works the National Museum in Cracow and thereby give an example of
generosity to private persons. Since then artists, and even more often their families and
inheritors, frequently offered their works to the Museum. However, the size and richness
of the collection has been decided by donations made by art collectors, sometimes quite
large in number and of great variety, a testimony to the scope of interests of their owners
and to their financial condition.
The first set of paintings from the turn of the centuries acquired by the Museum was the
moderately large but valuable collection of Teodor and Zeneida Dunin, offered in
1909 and comprising, among others, works by Julian Falat, Jacek Malczewski, Jozef
Pankiewicz, Leon Wyczolkowski and Marian Wawrzeniecki. In the year 1916 Eustachy
Jaxa-Chronowski, an insurgent of 1863, bequeathed to the Museum a collection
which included also works of contemporary art. The value of the donation was
appreciated in the letter of condolence addressed to the collector’s widow by the then
director of the Museum, Feliks Kopera: Your late husband has handed over to our
institution the thing which he especially loved, with which he did not part till his last
Already the first statute of the National Museum in Cracow (called to life on 7th October
1879), passed on 1st and 8th March 1883 by the City Council, claimed that the aim of the
Museum is to demonstrate through collected specimens the state of art in Poland in its
entire historical and current development In this way two principal directions were set for
the activity of the first Polish public museum: to collect works of older art and to document
current artistic activities. In both of these areas the Museum’s collections have been shaped
on one hand owing to various donations and long-term deposits and on the other owing
to purchases meant to programmatically supplement the collection. Public generosity, in
great measure motivated by patriotism, coupled with the scarcity of financial means at the
disposal of the Museum led to the situation in which — especially in the earHer period
— the Museum’s resources were considerably decided by donations.
The nucleus of the collection of contemporary art the National Museum
owes to artists themselves. The direct impulse to create the Museum became, on 5th
October 1879, the presentation to the city of the huge painting “Nero’s Torches” by its
author, Henryk Siemiradzki, in the course of celebrations of Jozef Ignacy Kraszewski’s
literary anniversary. On the next day thirty nine Polish artists declared their willingness to
enrich with their works the National Museum in Cracow and thereby give an example of
generosity to private persons. Since then artists, and even more often their families and
inheritors, frequently offered their works to the Museum. However, the size and richness
of the collection has been decided by donations made by art collectors, sometimes quite
large in number and of great variety, a testimony to the scope of interests of their owners
and to their financial condition.
The first set of paintings from the turn of the centuries acquired by the Museum was the
moderately large but valuable collection of Teodor and Zeneida Dunin, offered in
1909 and comprising, among others, works by Julian Falat, Jacek Malczewski, Jozef
Pankiewicz, Leon Wyczolkowski and Marian Wawrzeniecki. In the year 1916 Eustachy
Jaxa-Chronowski, an insurgent of 1863, bequeathed to the Museum a collection
which included also works of contemporary art. The value of the donation was
appreciated in the letter of condolence addressed to the collector’s widow by the then
director of the Museum, Feliks Kopera: Your late husband has handed over to our
institution the thing which he especially loved, with which he did not part till his last