DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55687#0087
Artyści polscy w Rzymie w latach 1900-1914
83
Małgorzata Biernacka
Polish artists in Romę between 1900-1914
The period 1900-1914 saw a decline of the formerly important milieu of Polish artists in Romę. There
were several reasons for such a situation, first of all a vast and interesting development of fine arts back in
homeland around 1900, fuelled by the artists of the movement Young Poland. This fact was stressed in
1904 by Antoni Potocki, a Polish critic living in Paris, who then called Italy a Campo Santo - a graveyard.
Potockis diagnosis regarding no need for all Polish artistic colonies abroad - in Munich, Romę and Berlin
- seemed to be true; he madę only one exception in the case of Paris, the most important art Capital in
Europę. Romę, as we know, could not compete in the field of artistic avant-garde.
In the last quarter of the 19ch century Polish artists in Romę formed a circle around a painter Henryk
Siemiradzki (d. 1902) and sculptor Wiktor Brodzki (d. 1904). This great loss - and the death of Alek-
sander Gierymski in 1901 - marked the end of „the Golden Age”. In the first fourteen years of the 20th
century Polish artists residents in Romę were few: Teodor Rygier, Stefan Bakałowicz, Edward Grajnert,
Henryk Glicenstein, Edward Okuń, Antoni Madeyski. All of them were morę connected with the artistic
life back in homeland than in Italy. Among the visitors to Romę of that time we can find almost twenty
names of Polish painters still interested in Italian landscape and monuments but not in modern Italian art.
83
Małgorzata Biernacka
Polish artists in Romę between 1900-1914
The period 1900-1914 saw a decline of the formerly important milieu of Polish artists in Romę. There
were several reasons for such a situation, first of all a vast and interesting development of fine arts back in
homeland around 1900, fuelled by the artists of the movement Young Poland. This fact was stressed in
1904 by Antoni Potocki, a Polish critic living in Paris, who then called Italy a Campo Santo - a graveyard.
Potockis diagnosis regarding no need for all Polish artistic colonies abroad - in Munich, Romę and Berlin
- seemed to be true; he madę only one exception in the case of Paris, the most important art Capital in
Europę. Romę, as we know, could not compete in the field of artistic avant-garde.
In the last quarter of the 19ch century Polish artists in Romę formed a circle around a painter Henryk
Siemiradzki (d. 1902) and sculptor Wiktor Brodzki (d. 1904). This great loss - and the death of Alek-
sander Gierymski in 1901 - marked the end of „the Golden Age”. In the first fourteen years of the 20th
century Polish artists residents in Romę were few: Teodor Rygier, Stefan Bakałowicz, Edward Grajnert,
Henryk Glicenstein, Edward Okuń, Antoni Madeyski. All of them were morę connected with the artistic
life back in homeland than in Italy. Among the visitors to Romę of that time we can find almost twenty
names of Polish painters still interested in Italian landscape and monuments but not in modern Italian art.