DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31381#0018
16
THE HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COLLECTION
of the National Museum, carried out with an immense verve in the years 1933-1939,
was also accompanied by donations of works of art: among others Wincenty and Celina
Lepkowski offered a large composition of Waclaw Szymanowski’s “Hutsul Court-
ship”. In the year 1938 the Museum obtained from the ex-owner of the Dluski
Sanatorium in Zakopane, Marian Lin d e, a monumental decorative panel from the said
sanatorium, whose author was Jan Rembowski. An art historian and employee of the
National Museum, Slawomir Wojak, offered an early painting by Stanislaw
Ignacy Witkiewicz in 1966: two other works by Witkacy were donated later by Janina
Kardas and Barbara Korytowska. An outstanding art historian, Professor Karolina
Lanckoronska from Rome offered Jacek Malczewski’s painting “Don Quixote
and Sancho Pansa” coming from the collection of her father Karol, the artist’s patron
and friend.
It is characteristic of the collection that almost all donors either lived in Cracow or
possessed emotional ties with this city. In the case of painters who either presented their
works themselves or bequeathed them to the Museum in their last will, those bonds had
been established during their studies at the Cracovian Academy. Before World War I,
in the spirit of the 19th century tradition, the role of the National Museum in Cracow as
an institution uniting all Poles over and above the borders of the partitions was
demostrated by the donations made by the inhabitants of Nowogrodek (1907) sin by the
Varsovian doctor, Teodor Dunin (1909).
The Museum completed the collections of modern Polish painting with purchases. The
first painting bought for the collection (in 1884) was Jacek Malczewski’s “Death of
Ellenai” In the years to come — apart from works by the already acclaimed masters:
Jozef Brandt, Jozef Chelmonski or Aleksander Gierymski — the following paintings
were purchased, among others: in 1890 “Familiar Note” by Wincenty Wodzinowski, in
1893 “The Miner’s Funeral” by Piotr Stachiewicz, in 1896 “Portrait of Paul Nauen” by
Olga Boznanska and in 1898 “Blessing of Easter Food” by Wlodzimierz Tetmajer. All
those were the creations of the representatives of the middle and younger generations,
yet already enjoying a certain fame. Considering the usefulness for the exhibition’s
purposes, paintings of rather large formats were chosen. Yet, due to the scarcity of
means at the disposal of the Museum, purchases merely supplemented the collections,
formed in their bulk owing to donations. In the inter-war period the subventions allotted
by the Community of the City of Cracow, the legal owner of the Museum, were engaged
mostly in the undertakings connected with the acquisition of a new seat, which limited
the possibilities of purchasing works of contemporary art An interesting solution proved
to be the creation of the Stanislaw Wyspianski Gallery of Modern Polish Art at the
National Museum. In 1932 a project of its statute was published in „Glos Plastykow”
(“The Plastic Artists’ Voice”), thus described by Julian Nowak: I propose to call to life,
within the National Museum, a separate Modem Gallery that would house exclusively
works of Polish artists, and only exceptionally of foreigners. The creations of
contemporary artists should not become a part of the collections of the National
Museum before the artistic opinion, unconstrained by any accidental considerations,
establishes their unqualified value. The Regulations of the Gallery were confirmed the
following year. The Gallery, which possessed its own inventory book, bought for
THE HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COLLECTION
of the National Museum, carried out with an immense verve in the years 1933-1939,
was also accompanied by donations of works of art: among others Wincenty and Celina
Lepkowski offered a large composition of Waclaw Szymanowski’s “Hutsul Court-
ship”. In the year 1938 the Museum obtained from the ex-owner of the Dluski
Sanatorium in Zakopane, Marian Lin d e, a monumental decorative panel from the said
sanatorium, whose author was Jan Rembowski. An art historian and employee of the
National Museum, Slawomir Wojak, offered an early painting by Stanislaw
Ignacy Witkiewicz in 1966: two other works by Witkacy were donated later by Janina
Kardas and Barbara Korytowska. An outstanding art historian, Professor Karolina
Lanckoronska from Rome offered Jacek Malczewski’s painting “Don Quixote
and Sancho Pansa” coming from the collection of her father Karol, the artist’s patron
and friend.
It is characteristic of the collection that almost all donors either lived in Cracow or
possessed emotional ties with this city. In the case of painters who either presented their
works themselves or bequeathed them to the Museum in their last will, those bonds had
been established during their studies at the Cracovian Academy. Before World War I,
in the spirit of the 19th century tradition, the role of the National Museum in Cracow as
an institution uniting all Poles over and above the borders of the partitions was
demostrated by the donations made by the inhabitants of Nowogrodek (1907) sin by the
Varsovian doctor, Teodor Dunin (1909).
The Museum completed the collections of modern Polish painting with purchases. The
first painting bought for the collection (in 1884) was Jacek Malczewski’s “Death of
Ellenai” In the years to come — apart from works by the already acclaimed masters:
Jozef Brandt, Jozef Chelmonski or Aleksander Gierymski — the following paintings
were purchased, among others: in 1890 “Familiar Note” by Wincenty Wodzinowski, in
1893 “The Miner’s Funeral” by Piotr Stachiewicz, in 1896 “Portrait of Paul Nauen” by
Olga Boznanska and in 1898 “Blessing of Easter Food” by Wlodzimierz Tetmajer. All
those were the creations of the representatives of the middle and younger generations,
yet already enjoying a certain fame. Considering the usefulness for the exhibition’s
purposes, paintings of rather large formats were chosen. Yet, due to the scarcity of
means at the disposal of the Museum, purchases merely supplemented the collections,
formed in their bulk owing to donations. In the inter-war period the subventions allotted
by the Community of the City of Cracow, the legal owner of the Museum, were engaged
mostly in the undertakings connected with the acquisition of a new seat, which limited
the possibilities of purchasing works of contemporary art An interesting solution proved
to be the creation of the Stanislaw Wyspianski Gallery of Modern Polish Art at the
National Museum. In 1932 a project of its statute was published in „Glos Plastykow”
(“The Plastic Artists’ Voice”), thus described by Julian Nowak: I propose to call to life,
within the National Museum, a separate Modem Gallery that would house exclusively
works of Polish artists, and only exceptionally of foreigners. The creations of
contemporary artists should not become a part of the collections of the National
Museum before the artistic opinion, unconstrained by any accidental considerations,
establishes their unqualified value. The Regulations of the Gallery were confirmed the
following year. The Gallery, which possessed its own inventory book, bought for