Masterpieces of Polish Painting in the Collection of the Lviv Art Gallery
18 September – 12 November 2003
Between 18 September and 12 October 2003, in the temporary exhibition halls of the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, an exhibition took place which provided an overview of the most outstanding achievements of Polish painting from the 18th century to the 20th century. The paintings gathered at the exhibition were presented rarely, and some of them appeared in Poland for the first time in half a century. It was therefore a unique opportunity, especially as the nearest cities to where the exhibition will be presented are Warsaw and Krakow.
The authors of the paintings presented in the exhibition are 50 painters who are known and admired by every Pole. Just to name a few: Marcello Bacciarelli, Jan Matejko, Artur Grottger, Wojciech Kossak, Henryk Siemiradzki, Józef Chełmoński, Leon Wyczółkowski, Julian Fałat….
Many paintings depict historical figures and scenes. Artur Grottger’s canvas ‘Meeting of Jan III Sobieski with Emperor Leopold’ recalls the glory times of the Republic of Poland. Wojciech Kossak reaches back to the Napoleonic campaign. In a winter landscape, he immortalised the heroic deed of Captain Gabriel Hohendorf near Borisov.
Referring to religious themes, the artists reached out to various faiths. A biblical scene was masterfully depicted by Henryk Siemiradzki in his canvas entitled Christ and the Samaritan Woman. Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz referred to Islam, painting ‘Prayer in the Desert’, where Bedouins recite the evening namaz. Józef Brodowski, on the other hand, immortalised the synagogue of Łańcut in a painting, filled by praying Jews.
Among the masters of portraiture at the Masterpieces exhibition was Jan Matejko. ‘Portrait of the artist’s children’ became the motif advertising the exhibition under discussion. It depicts two daughters, Helena and Beata, and two sons, Tadeusz and Jerzy. We will also see an original portrait of King Stanisław August Poniatowski by Marcello Bacciarelli, widely known from reproductions in school textbooks. Among the portraitists, regular visitors to the Stalowa Wola Museum will find names familiar from exhibitions in Stalowa Wola: Olga Boznańska, Jacek Malczewski, Alfons Karpiński – but with paintings that had not yet been presented in Stalowa Wola.
The exhibition did not lack landscapes. ‘Snow’ by Julian Fałat, is the highlight of the collection of Polish painting in Lviv. Among the canvases of Józef Chełmoński, one could see an atmospheric nocturne entitled ‘Moonlight Night’. And Leon Wyczółkowski’s ‘Oxen at the Corral’ was painted in full sunlight.
These are just a few of the 50 masterpieces which visitors to the Stalowa Wola Museum saw in September and October.
