DOI Artikel:
Wójcik, Agata: „Myśl artystyczna”, która przeniknęła do „knajp”: Wnętrza restauracyjne w Starym Teatrze w Krakowie projektu artystów związanych z Towarzystwem Polska Sztuka Stosowana
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44918#0143
other, a padded version with armrests. Not much can be said about the tables - in
the surviving photographs we see them covered with tablecloths. Both the chairs
and the radiator casing share the ornamentation that clearly has its origins in folk
decoration. In the backs of the chairs you can find hearts, butterflies, rosettes, and
undulating lines; the aprons of the chairs’ profiles, just like folk furniture, are fin-
ished with wavy lines; whereas upper rails and brackets under the armrests have
been inspired by folk cut-outs, which the tpss collected. The cut-outs, featuring
antithetically captured birds, also became the starting point for the creation of the
radiator casing, on which two ducks were depicted, among stylized branches and
garlands. Wojtyczko gave the room bright and cheerful colour tones. Even the
mahogany polished furniture was bright. It is not known what colour upholstery
was used on the furniture. Currently, the only known piece is kept at the Masovian
Museum in Płock, however, the original fabric has not survived. It can be assumed
that the fabric was blue, because this was the colour used by the designer who madę
a similar set of furniture at the order of the Dziewulski family from Warsaw.10 The
walls were upholstered to a height of 1.5 meters with a kilim tapestry of cream colour
with folk motifs of “trees” and “wreaths” of purple and yellow. A fragment of such
a kilim is stored at the National Museum in Kraków. A gilded board was nailed
over the kilim. The walls have been given a light pink colour.11
On the ground floor, a buffet room was also fitted, designed by Czajkowski
(see: Fig. 6-8). Unfortunately, the photographs surviving to this day do not let
much to be said about the arrangement of the space in this particular room, as all
they show is individual pieces of furniture. The artist designed a sideboard for the
buffet, along with two glass cabinets and two types of chairs, and it is not known
whether there used to be tables to match. When Czajkowski was designing the
suitę of furniture for the dining room in Władysław Reymonts home, which was
a repetition of the suitę from the Stary Teatr, then a table was included among
that set.12 The furniture was madę of ash timber. In all the pieces, the features
that linked them to the furniture of the Biedermeier era were evident. This had
already been noticed by critics at the time who wrote: “It is pleasantly striking at
First glance that the artist has kept in touch with the traditions bequeathed to us
by the latest period of artistic craft in Poland, with the conventions of the 1830S
and 1840S, which brought to our mansions and townhouses the Empire style, albeit
passed though the German prism, simplified and adapted to the modest needs of
eines Biedermeiers from Vienna or Wrocław”. What Czajkowski s suitę of furniture
has in common with Biedermeier style is the use of navy blue polished columns
both in the sideboard and in the frame, as well as intersecting muntins in the
glazed cabinet doors, whereas the shape of chairs is a repetition of the Hamburg
type. As was done in the Biedermeier era, the artist used decorative ąualities of
wood grain, which is especially visible in the sideboard door. He also refers to this
style in the striped fabric, that he used to cover the seats of the chairs. Czajkowski
subtly combined these evidently Biedermeier features with elements that had its
10 Library of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, portfolio of Jerzy Warchałowski, “Polish applied
art exhibition” 5 March 1908, 20028, pp. 12-13.
11 Stary Teatr, pp. 1-2.
12 Parts of the furniture suitę for Władysław Reymonts dining room is kept at the Museum of
Literaturę in Warsaw.
6. Józef Czajkowski, the
buffet room at the Stary
Teatr in Kraków, photo
from the collections of the
Cabinet of Engravings of
the Academy of Fine Arts
in Kraków.
7. Józef Czajkowski, a cabi-
net from the buffet room at
the Stary Teatr in Kraków,
photo from the collections
of the Cabinet of Engravings
of the Academy of Fine Arts
in Kraków.
8. Józef Czajkowski, a frag-
ment of the cabinet from
the buffet room in the Stary
Teatr in Kraków, photo
from the collections of the
Cabinet of Engravings of
the Academy of Fine Arts
in Kraków.
->see p. 128
‘Artistic thought” which permeated “common taverns”...
141
the surviving photographs we see them covered with tablecloths. Both the chairs
and the radiator casing share the ornamentation that clearly has its origins in folk
decoration. In the backs of the chairs you can find hearts, butterflies, rosettes, and
undulating lines; the aprons of the chairs’ profiles, just like folk furniture, are fin-
ished with wavy lines; whereas upper rails and brackets under the armrests have
been inspired by folk cut-outs, which the tpss collected. The cut-outs, featuring
antithetically captured birds, also became the starting point for the creation of the
radiator casing, on which two ducks were depicted, among stylized branches and
garlands. Wojtyczko gave the room bright and cheerful colour tones. Even the
mahogany polished furniture was bright. It is not known what colour upholstery
was used on the furniture. Currently, the only known piece is kept at the Masovian
Museum in Płock, however, the original fabric has not survived. It can be assumed
that the fabric was blue, because this was the colour used by the designer who madę
a similar set of furniture at the order of the Dziewulski family from Warsaw.10 The
walls were upholstered to a height of 1.5 meters with a kilim tapestry of cream colour
with folk motifs of “trees” and “wreaths” of purple and yellow. A fragment of such
a kilim is stored at the National Museum in Kraków. A gilded board was nailed
over the kilim. The walls have been given a light pink colour.11
On the ground floor, a buffet room was also fitted, designed by Czajkowski
(see: Fig. 6-8). Unfortunately, the photographs surviving to this day do not let
much to be said about the arrangement of the space in this particular room, as all
they show is individual pieces of furniture. The artist designed a sideboard for the
buffet, along with two glass cabinets and two types of chairs, and it is not known
whether there used to be tables to match. When Czajkowski was designing the
suitę of furniture for the dining room in Władysław Reymonts home, which was
a repetition of the suitę from the Stary Teatr, then a table was included among
that set.12 The furniture was madę of ash timber. In all the pieces, the features
that linked them to the furniture of the Biedermeier era were evident. This had
already been noticed by critics at the time who wrote: “It is pleasantly striking at
First glance that the artist has kept in touch with the traditions bequeathed to us
by the latest period of artistic craft in Poland, with the conventions of the 1830S
and 1840S, which brought to our mansions and townhouses the Empire style, albeit
passed though the German prism, simplified and adapted to the modest needs of
eines Biedermeiers from Vienna or Wrocław”. What Czajkowski s suitę of furniture
has in common with Biedermeier style is the use of navy blue polished columns
both in the sideboard and in the frame, as well as intersecting muntins in the
glazed cabinet doors, whereas the shape of chairs is a repetition of the Hamburg
type. As was done in the Biedermeier era, the artist used decorative ąualities of
wood grain, which is especially visible in the sideboard door. He also refers to this
style in the striped fabric, that he used to cover the seats of the chairs. Czajkowski
subtly combined these evidently Biedermeier features with elements that had its
10 Library of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, portfolio of Jerzy Warchałowski, “Polish applied
art exhibition” 5 March 1908, 20028, pp. 12-13.
11 Stary Teatr, pp. 1-2.
12 Parts of the furniture suitę for Władysław Reymonts dining room is kept at the Museum of
Literaturę in Warsaw.
6. Józef Czajkowski, the
buffet room at the Stary
Teatr in Kraków, photo
from the collections of the
Cabinet of Engravings of
the Academy of Fine Arts
in Kraków.
7. Józef Czajkowski, a cabi-
net from the buffet room at
the Stary Teatr in Kraków,
photo from the collections
of the Cabinet of Engravings
of the Academy of Fine Arts
in Kraków.
8. Józef Czajkowski, a frag-
ment of the cabinet from
the buffet room in the Stary
Teatr in Kraków, photo
from the collections of the
Cabinet of Engravings of
the Academy of Fine Arts
in Kraków.
->see p. 128
‘Artistic thought” which permeated “common taverns”...
141