DOI Heft:
Część I. Museum / Part I. The Museum
DOI Artikel:Danielewicz, Iwona: Galeria Sztuki XIX Wieku
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45360#0053
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The Museum
though he sometimes blurred the planes with his contorted, crooked figures and bewildering
marionettes painted in brisk tangled lines. His paintings are dominated by greys, whites and
various pastels, or dark tones suggesting passion, isolation and death (fig. 6).
Facing Wojtkiewicz’s works are paintings by the Munich-educated and Paris-based
Boznańska. Her pieces are composed of minute spots of paint, with overall restrained col-
ours dominated by grey. Full of emotional tension, they oscillate in a strange light much like
the painting and drawings of Wojtkiewicz. Her subjects - usually figures indoors, delicate,
brittle, immersed in their own private world and sometimes quite unrealistic - are marked
with characteristically diffuse outlines and are bathed in rippled light.
Symbolism is also duly represented within the many artistic manifestations of Modernism
in Poland. Romanticism extolled a conviction that was very firmly rooted in European art,
namely that the role of the artist is to reveal transcendental truths, and that art should be
neither an illustration of the everyday reality nor of historical events. In this section, we grant
a considerable amount of space to works by Jacek Malczewski. Paintings from his “Siberian”
period are displayed alongside pieces that came later, including those from a period when he
was greatly influenced by German Symbolism, as well as those which he created at the begin-
ning of the 20th century. These paintings are arranged in a dialogue with other representatives
of the Young Poland movement - Józef Mehoffer, Witold Wojtkiewicz, and Edward Okuh.
All of these artists are linked by a common interest in “history” presented on canvas in the
form of a literary, mythological or fable narrative. Even the portraits, especially Malczewski’s,
contain hidden meanings: apparitions, animals, mythical creatures and various symbols
referring to the activity of the subject mingle with their physiognomy. Among these paint-
ings, the landscapes can be said to possess an imaginary character. Painting types become
jumbled and historical themes seep into landscapes and portraits. Józef Mehoffer’s Strange
Garden (1902-1903), though in the artist’s mind it was meant to be a reflection of his happy
family life - a hortus deliciarum of sorts,9 in fact employs symbols originating in the artist’s
imagination and presents an illusory world thanks to the chiaroscuro used (fig. 7). Although
Mehoffer titled the painting Sunshine at a 1905 exhibition in Munich, the critics failed to get
a sense of idyll from the mood it emanated.10 A strange internal tension also arises between
the children and the trembling landscape bathed in light, washed-out tones in Wojtkiewicz’s
Abduction of the Princess (Flight) (1908). Also Symbolistic in its depiction of the subject is
Saint Agnes (1920-1921) by Malczewski (fig. 8). Here, the artist places the figure of the saint,
wearing a large scarf with feathers and a heavy coat slumping towards the ground, against
a background of nature in rebirth. In our historical and artistic context, Malczewski’s oeuvre
is considered groundbreaking, insightful, and - through his apparent departure from tradi-
tion - truly innovative. Meanwhile, foreign viewers discern elements of kitsch in his works
and find evidence of an unrestrained ego (the large number of self-portraits being a case
9 Agnieszka Morawińska, “Hortus deliciarum Józefa Mehoffera” [“Józef Mehoffer’s hortus deliciarum ’],
in Ars auro prior. Studia Ioanni Białostocki sexagenario dicata (Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1981),
pp. 715-8.
10 Opinion of the well-known art critics Ludwig Hevesi and William Ritter, see Marta Smolińska-Buczuk,
‘“Dziwny ogród’ Józefa Mehoffera. Topografia interpretacji” [“Józef Mehoffer s ‘Strange Garden.’ A Topography
of Interpretation”], in Wielkie dzieła, wielkie interpretacje. Materiały LV ogólnopolskiej sesji naukowej Stowarzyszenia
Historyków Sztuki Warszawa 17-18 listopada 2006 [Great Works, Great Interpretations. Proceedings of the 55th Annual
Conference of the Association of Art Historians, Warsaw, 17-18 November 2006], Maria Poprzęcka, ed. (Warsaw:
Stowarzyszenie Historyków Sztuki, 2007), pp. 192-5.
The Museum
though he sometimes blurred the planes with his contorted, crooked figures and bewildering
marionettes painted in brisk tangled lines. His paintings are dominated by greys, whites and
various pastels, or dark tones suggesting passion, isolation and death (fig. 6).
Facing Wojtkiewicz’s works are paintings by the Munich-educated and Paris-based
Boznańska. Her pieces are composed of minute spots of paint, with overall restrained col-
ours dominated by grey. Full of emotional tension, they oscillate in a strange light much like
the painting and drawings of Wojtkiewicz. Her subjects - usually figures indoors, delicate,
brittle, immersed in their own private world and sometimes quite unrealistic - are marked
with characteristically diffuse outlines and are bathed in rippled light.
Symbolism is also duly represented within the many artistic manifestations of Modernism
in Poland. Romanticism extolled a conviction that was very firmly rooted in European art,
namely that the role of the artist is to reveal transcendental truths, and that art should be
neither an illustration of the everyday reality nor of historical events. In this section, we grant
a considerable amount of space to works by Jacek Malczewski. Paintings from his “Siberian”
period are displayed alongside pieces that came later, including those from a period when he
was greatly influenced by German Symbolism, as well as those which he created at the begin-
ning of the 20th century. These paintings are arranged in a dialogue with other representatives
of the Young Poland movement - Józef Mehoffer, Witold Wojtkiewicz, and Edward Okuh.
All of these artists are linked by a common interest in “history” presented on canvas in the
form of a literary, mythological or fable narrative. Even the portraits, especially Malczewski’s,
contain hidden meanings: apparitions, animals, mythical creatures and various symbols
referring to the activity of the subject mingle with their physiognomy. Among these paint-
ings, the landscapes can be said to possess an imaginary character. Painting types become
jumbled and historical themes seep into landscapes and portraits. Józef Mehoffer’s Strange
Garden (1902-1903), though in the artist’s mind it was meant to be a reflection of his happy
family life - a hortus deliciarum of sorts,9 in fact employs symbols originating in the artist’s
imagination and presents an illusory world thanks to the chiaroscuro used (fig. 7). Although
Mehoffer titled the painting Sunshine at a 1905 exhibition in Munich, the critics failed to get
a sense of idyll from the mood it emanated.10 A strange internal tension also arises between
the children and the trembling landscape bathed in light, washed-out tones in Wojtkiewicz’s
Abduction of the Princess (Flight) (1908). Also Symbolistic in its depiction of the subject is
Saint Agnes (1920-1921) by Malczewski (fig. 8). Here, the artist places the figure of the saint,
wearing a large scarf with feathers and a heavy coat slumping towards the ground, against
a background of nature in rebirth. In our historical and artistic context, Malczewski’s oeuvre
is considered groundbreaking, insightful, and - through his apparent departure from tradi-
tion - truly innovative. Meanwhile, foreign viewers discern elements of kitsch in his works
and find evidence of an unrestrained ego (the large number of self-portraits being a case
9 Agnieszka Morawińska, “Hortus deliciarum Józefa Mehoffera” [“Józef Mehoffer’s hortus deliciarum ’],
in Ars auro prior. Studia Ioanni Białostocki sexagenario dicata (Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1981),
pp. 715-8.
10 Opinion of the well-known art critics Ludwig Hevesi and William Ritter, see Marta Smolińska-Buczuk,
‘“Dziwny ogród’ Józefa Mehoffera. Topografia interpretacji” [“Józef Mehoffer s ‘Strange Garden.’ A Topography
of Interpretation”], in Wielkie dzieła, wielkie interpretacje. Materiały LV ogólnopolskiej sesji naukowej Stowarzyszenia
Historyków Sztuki Warszawa 17-18 listopada 2006 [Great Works, Great Interpretations. Proceedings of the 55th Annual
Conference of the Association of Art Historians, Warsaw, 17-18 November 2006], Maria Poprzęcka, ed. (Warsaw:
Stowarzyszenie Historyków Sztuki, 2007), pp. 192-5.