Stanisław Wyspiański

Paintings

Stanisław Wyspiański (Polish pronunciation: [staˈɲiswaf vɨˈspjaɲskʲi]; January 15, 1869–November 28, 1907) was a Polish playwright, painter and poet, as well as interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created a series of symbolic, national dramas within the artistic philosophy of the Young Poland Movement. Wyspiański was one of the most outstanding and multifaceted artists of his time in Europe. He successfully joined the trends of modernism with themes of the Polish folk tradition and Romantic history. Unofficially, he came to be known as the Fourth Polish Bard (in addition to the earlier Three Bards: Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, and Zygmunt Krasiński).

Biography

Stanisław Wyspiański was born to Franciszek Wyspiański and Maria Rogowska. His father, a sculptor, owned an atelier on Wawel Hill. His mother died of tuberculosis in 1876 when Stanisław was seven years old. Due to alcohol problem, Stanisław’s father could not fulfil his parental responsibilities. Stanisław was adopted by his aunt Joanna Stankiewiczowa and her husband Kazimierz. The Stankiewicz family belonged to a bourgeois and intellectual class. In their house Wyspiański became acquainted with painter Jan Matejko, who was a frequent visitor. Matejko soon recognized that the boy had artistic talent and gave him the first artistic guidance. Wyspiański attended Saint Anne’s Secondary. The school was unique for several reasons. Firstly, although Polish language was forbidden in educational institutions under foreign rule, the lectures in Saint Anne’s Gymnasium were delivered in Polish. Secondly, the teacher’s goal was to equip the students with a thorough knowledge of Polish history and literature. Thirdly, the school graduates, which included Lucjan Rydel, Stanisław Estreicher and Henryk Opieński, were considered prominent figures in Kraków’s cultural life. As a student Wyspiański did not display any specific talent, but took particular interest in art and literature. According to Joanna Stankiewiczowa, a young Stanisław portrayed small village cottages, animals, plants, armors and decorations. As far as literature was concerned, Wyspiański created a dramatic interpretation of Matejko’s painting Stefan Batory pod Pskowem (Bathory at Pskov).

In 1887 Wyspiański enrolled in the Philosophy Department at the Jagiellonian University and the School of Fine Arts in Kraków. While studying at the University, he attended lectures in art, history and literature. Jan Matejko, the dean of the School of Fine Arts soon recognized Wyspiański’s talent and asked him to join in the creation of a polychrome inside the Mariacki Church.
Planty Park at Dawn, 1894

The years 1890-1895 were devoted to traveling. Wyspiański visited Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Prague and France. The stay in France was regarded to be the major point in his artistic life. He studied at the private atelier Académie Colarossi. Since the school fee was very high, Wyspiański applied for a grant. During the stay in France he got acquainted with Paul Gauguin. Together they visited art museums, where Wyspiański was bewitched by the beauty of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes’s paintings. He also attended theatre performances based on Shakespeare’s and antic plays. His future dramas: Daniel i Meleager (Daniel and Meleagra) and Powrót Odysa (Return of Odysseus) were based on the antic tradition. Meanwhile, he worked on several dramas Królowa Polskiej Korony (The Queen of Polish Crown), Warszawianka (Varsovian Anthem) and the first version of Legenda (Legend). The play Legenda (Legend) was based on the famous Polish legend about Wars and Sawa. In August 1894 he returned to Kraków, where he got involved in the modernist movement. It was then he designed and partially made a polychrome for the Franciscan Church that was composed of flowery, geometrical and heraldic motifs. Moreover, the prior of the church encouraged Wyspiański to design various stained glass windows such as Blessed Salomea, Saint Francis Stigmata and God the Father. It is worth mentioning that Wyspiański received an award of the Polish Academy of Learning for the landscape of the Kopiec Kościuszki (Kościuszko Mound). As a painter, interior designer and poet he cooperated with the Town Theatre in Kraków. First he designed furniture and scenography for the theatre performances, then he staged various dramas on the stage of the theatre.
Motherhood, 1905

In Kraków he cooperated with the Art Society and in the mid of 1898 was nominated art manager of the weekly Życie (Life). Unfortunately, his first published dramas Legenda (Legend), (1897) and Daniel i Meleager (Daniel and Meleagra), (1898) did not receive acclaim of the critics. It was the Warszawianka (Varsovian Anthem) that brought instantaneous acclaim to the author. The premiere of the drama marked his debut as a playwright of national dramas. The theatre premiere of the drama on 2 July 1901 starred Helena Modrzejewska as Maria. The years 1899-1900 marked the publication of Protesilas i Laodamia (Protesilas and Laodamia), Lelewel (Lelevel) and Legion. This drama is regarded to be the author’s polemic with the romantic vision of history. In 1900 Wyspiański married the mother of his four children Teodora Pytko. In November of the same year he participated in the wedding of his friend Lucjan Rydel in Bronowice, a village near Kraków. The wedding party was an inspiration for his well acclaimed play Wesele (The Wedding). It is a deeply critical yet sarcastic expose on Polish society of 19th century. "Wesele transformed Wyspianski from a moderately successful visual and verbal artist associated with the Young Poland movement into a national dramatist-visionary whose significance in Poland is comparable to Yeats's in Ireland, O'Neill's in America, or Maeterlinck's in Belgium."[1] The drama made references to the current situation in Poland, and showed the picture of the powerless society. Although the censorship barred the sale of copies of Wesele (The Wedding), the play was staged in the theatre.
Self-Portrait with Wife at the Window, 1904

After the success of Wesele (The Wedding) four new plays based on Polish history were published Wyzwolenie (Liberation), Achilles, Bolesław Śmiały (Boleslaus The Bold) and Legenda II (Legend 2). Next years were devoted to publishing of Skałka and Powrót Odysa (Return of Odysseus), meanwhile Wyspiański translated Corneillea’s Cyd (Le Cid) and Voltaire's Zaïre.

In 1906 Wyspiański became professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, he was also a member of the City Council. In his last years Wyspianski’s health condition deteriorated, as a result, he underwent medical treatments in Rymanów and Bad Hall. Then he settled in his small cottage in a village of Węgrzce. He died of then incurable syphilis. His funeral took place in Kraków and became a national manifestation. Wyspiański was buried in the Crypt of the Distinguished in the Skałka Church.

Creative output
Stained-glass window in Franciscan Church, designed by Wyspiański

Wyspiański’s artistic output is very eclectic. Among dramas and poetry, one can find there views of Cracow (drawings, sketch-books, oil-paintings, pastel drawings), portraits and self-portraits, designs of stained glass windows and paintings, illustrations, graphic art, plans of furniture and interiors, development of Wawel.

Drawings, such as 1890 self-portrait and drafts from his journeys across Europe and Poland, are among Wyspiański’s well-known works. He later created a herbarium by drawing plants. He was, however, most frequently using the technique of pastel; his first pastel drawings were produced between 1890 and 1894. They mainly present the artist’s family, friends and other artists. Wyspiański eagerly drew his children in everyday situations such as sleeping or feeding:

    * Helenka, 1900, pastel drawing, the National Museum in Cracow
    * Śpiący Staś (Sleeping Staś), 1902, pastel drawing, the Silesian Museum in Katowice
    * Śpiący Mietek (Sleeping Mietek), 1904, pastel drawing, the Museum of Art in Łódź
    * Macierzyństwo (The Motherhood), 1905, pastel drawing, the National Museum in Cracow
    * Żona artysty z synkiem Stasiem (Artist’s Wife with their Son Staś), 1904, pastel drawing, the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom

Using this technique he painted many of his acquaintances and artists, among others Kazimierz Lewandowski, Jacek Malczewski, Eliza Pareńska, the Kryształowicz family, Ludwik Solski, Irena Solska, Jan Stanisławski. He painted the landscapes of Kraków – the Kraków Planty Park with desmans (also painted by means of the oil technique), the Vistula Rudawa River, cottages in Grębowo and at the end of his life views from his studio on the Kościuszko Mound. He is an author of Maeterlinck’s Wnętrze (Interior) poster.

A part of his output constitutes various designs – mainly stained glass windows, polichromes and interiors. Stanisław Wyspiański together with Józef Mehoffer designed 36 stained glass windows for the Mariacki Church in Kraków to help Matejko in church conservation in which he had been taking part since 1889. During their stay in Paris they both made two cartons for the competition of the Rudolfinum Hall Decoration Design in Prague and curtain designs for the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków. However, Wyspiański himself designed stained glass windows and polychromes for the Franciscan Church in Kraków (with the famous stained glass window Stań się), stained glass windows depicting Saint Stanisław, Kazimierz the Great and Henryk Pobożny for Wawel Cathedral (made only in 2005-2007 in the Wyspiański 2000 Pavilion), the design of a showroom of the Fine Arts Society (1904), stairs and hall decoration in Medical House Society. In 1905 Wyspiański together with Władysław Ekielski designed the conversion of the Wawel Hill (the so called Acropolis).

Selected plays

    * Warszawianka (Varsovian Anthem), (1898)
    * Klątwa (The Curse), (1899)
    * Protesilas i Leodamia (1899)
    * Meleager (1899)
    * Legion (1900)
    * Wesele (The Wedding), (1901)
    * Wyzwolenie (Liberation), (1903)
    * Noc listopadowa (November Night), (1904)
    * Acropolis (1904)
    * Skałka (1907)
    * Powrót Odysa (Return of Odysseus), (1907)
    * Zygmunt August (1907 - unfinished)

Streets of Kraków with Wyspiański connections

26 Krupnicza Street Wyspiański was born at 26 Krupnicza Street in Kraków, in a house that belonged to his grandparents. He lived there until 1873.

25 Kanonicza Street In the summer of 1873 Wyspianski’s family moved to the house of Jan Długosz. Wyspiański’s younger brother and mother died here. In the autumn of 1880 Wyspiański moved into the house of his uncle and aunt.

1 Kopernika Street Between 1880 and 1883 he lived in the house of the Stankiewicz family, site of the later PTTK Tourist House and the present Wyspiański Hotel.

2 Zacisze Street Here was located the Stankiewicz family’s new apartment. It was on the second floor of the now non-extant Central Hotel at the junction of Zacisze and Basztowa streets, with a view onto the Barbakan and the Planty Park. Because of the hotel's expansion, the Stankiewicz family was forced to move out in 1885.

1 Westerplatte Street (then Kolejowa Street) In July 1895 the Stankiewicz family began living here in an apartment on the ground floor at the corner of Kolejowa and Lubicz streets. Currently in this place there are arcades and stairs to an underground passage. At the time Wyspiański had his studio in the nearby village of Grzegórzki, where he worked on stained glass window designs for the Franciscan Church.

10 Poselska Street After a few months at Westerplatte Street, Wyspiański’s uncle died and Wyspiański and his aunt went to live at 10 Poselska Street in a second floor apartment.

9 Mariacki Square In July 1898 Wyspiański rented a room at the junction of 9 Mariacki Square and 4 Rynek Główny. In 1907 the house was taken down and replaced by an Art Nouveau tenement block. The flat was used as a studio, Wyspiański at the time was registered at 23 Szlak Street in the house of his future wife, Teofilia Pytko.

79 Krowoderska Street In 1901 Stanisław Wyspiański received an award from the Academy of Learning for his stained glass windows for the royal castle at Wawel. Thanks to this, he was able to rent a seven-room apartment in a tenement house on the second floor at the corner of Juliusza Słowackiego Avenue (which still exists). He lived here with his family and had his studio here as well. Allegedly there was a sign on the door which stated: "Here lives Stanisław Wyspiański and he does not want to be visited".

Węgrzce near Kraków After another prize for landscapes depicting the Kościuszko Mound awarded by the Academy of Learning, Wyspiański moved to his own house in the village of Węgrzce (nb 5). The house is now demolished has been replaced by another private residence. There is a stone at the site with a commemorative plaque erected on the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth.

1 Siemiradzkiego Street The hospital in which Wyspiański died on November 28, 1907, no longer exists. It was situated on the corner of Siemiradzkiego and Łobzowska streets.

Museums and Monuments

In the Szołayski tenement house in Kraków there is a Stanisław Wyspiański Museum, a department of the National Museum. At Wszystkich Świętych Square the Wyspiański 2000 Information Exhibition Pavilion was erected, in which there are three Wyspiański’s stained glass windows.

In front of the new National Museum building in Kraków at 3-go Maja Street there is a monument to Stanisław Wyspiański.

The year 2007 was named the Year of Stanisław Wyspiański by the Polish Sejm.

Footnote

   1. ^ Ann Komaromi, "Wyspianski's Wesele: Poised on the Border," Theatre Journal - Volume 54, Number 2, May 2002, The Johns Hopkins University Press Theatre Journal 54.2 (2002) pp. 187-202, JHU.edu

Bibliography

    * Zimmer, Szczepan K. (1959) Stanisław Wyspiański, Biographical Sketch, translated by Helena Maria Zimmer
    * Brodnicki, W. (1970) Między niebem a piekłem. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Łódzkie.
    * Kępiński, Z. (1984) Stanisław Wyspiański. Warsaw: Literatura.
    * Skoczylas, L. (1972) Stanisław Wyspiański - życie i twórczość. Cracow: Książnica Powszechna.

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