The Great Painters

Jacek Malczewski

- one of the most sovereign artists

Jacek Malczewski

Jacek Malczewski, self-portrait (1925), Wikipedia

Jacek Malczewski

(1854-1929)

His art is a real "explosive mixture" - it combines eroticism with mysticism, folklore with antiquity, lyrical reverie with brutal sensuality and pathos with ironic mockery. For years it has evoked extreme emotions, but leaves no one indifferent. His crazy, swinging imagination has created an incredibly expressive world.

THE FATHER OF POLISH SYMBOLISM

CINEMATOGRAPHY OF THE IMAGE

MODERN ARTIST

FOLKLORE AND ROMANTICISM

COLORFUL NOVELTY

Jacek Malczewski

1854

(15 July) Jacek Malczewski, son of Julian and Maria of Korwin Szymanowski, was born in Radom.

1867-1871

he stayed in Wielgie in the estate of his uncle Feliks Karczewski, where his teacher was a January insurgent, naturalist and writer Adolf Dygasiński (1839-1902)

i

1873

Jan Matejko (1838-1893) notices in Jacek Malczewski's "an impaired talent for painting" and personally asks his father to let his son leave the junior high school and devote himself exclusively to studies in an art school. This is what happened - Jacek Malczewski left the gymnasium and started studying at the Cracow School of Fine Arts.

1876-1877

he went to Paris, where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts

1879

as a result of the conflict with Jan Matejko left the School of Fine Arts

1884

After his father's death in January, Jacek Malczewski experiences dramatic moments. From then on, the motif of death appears in his paintings and constantly returns

1885-1886

study stay in Munich

1887

He married Maria Gralewska, daughter of a Krakow pharmacist. They lived together in the Gralewskis' tenement house on Szczepańska Street in Krakow.

1888

He married Maria Gralewska, daughter of a Krakow pharmacist. They lived together in the Gralewskis' tenement house on Szczepańska Street in Krakow.

1890

he started working on the painting "Melancholy", which initiated a symbolic breakthrough in his work

1892

he reconciled with Jan Matejko, who visited him in his studio on Łobzowska Street in Kraków

Jacek Malczewski

 

Hamlet of Poland - Portrait of Aleksander Wielopolski (1903). National Museum in Warsaw, Wikipedia

1893

second stay in Munich

1897

Jacek Malczewski became one of the founding members of the "Krakow Art Nouveau", the "Sztuka" Society of Polish Artists. He was a well-known and popular person, even a puppet appeared in the "Green Balloon" cabaret - Jacek Symbolewski

1898

the artist's mother died, which the painter deeply experienced

1899

He settled in Zwierzyniec in the Villa "Under the Mother of God".

1912

He was elected rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow and held this function until the outbreak of World War I. His opposition to the obligation to wear the Austrian representative uniform, which was for him the uniform of the invader, went down in history

1916

Jacek Malczewski returned to Krakow (he spent the beginning of the war in Vienna) and settled at 8 Krupnicza Street, took up a job at the Academy and painted paintings inspired by war events.

1921

received the order Polonia Restitua IV class

1924

The 70th birthday of the painter and the 50th anniversary of Malczewski's creative work is officially celebrated. Jubilee exhibitions are held in Krakow, Poznan, Warsaw, Lviv.

1929

At the National Exhibition in Poznań he received the Grand Gold Medal. The painter slowly began to lose his sight and had to stop painting. Jacek Malczewski died on 8 October in Cracow. As he wished, he was buried in a Franciscan tertiary habit, in which he portrayed himself years ago. His ashes were deposited in the Crypt of Merit in the Cracow church on the Rock.

Interesting facts:

„Femme fatale”
Beautiful Maria Balowa, the wife of starost Adam Bal, played the role of "femme fatale" in Jacek Malczewski's life, while Krakow was shaking with rumours. The social scandal reached its peak when in 1906 the painter went to Italy with his new muse. Maria Balowa's beauty mastered Malczewski's imagination, who repeatedly portrayed her and gave her features to the figures of Chimer and Polonia.
Picasso
The picture "Death of Ellenai" was enthusiastically received by the audience. According to the legend, it was the only painting in front of which he stopped, visiting the Cloth Hall, intrigued Picasso.
Narcissus

There was probably no artist in Poland who left so many self-portraits. His passion for presenting himself is astonishing, but also puzzling. Accused of extreme egotism and megalomania, suspected of transvestitism, Jacek Malczewski certainly had narcissistic tendencies, but he was also able to make a merciless self-irony, sharp mockery. He portrayed himself in armour and a woman's apron, in a beret, a hat, a renaissance mop, a wig, and even... with an iron cake on his head.

Wajda
Malczewski's visions are also used by filmmakers. In "Brzezina" Andrzej Wajda composes frames according to "Poisoned Well", and the symbolic folk from Jacek Malczewski's paintings can be found in Jan Jakub Kolski's films.
Jacek Malczewski

Poisoned well with chimera (1905). Jacek Malczewski Museum in Radom, Wikipedia

About the Art of Jacek Malczewski:

Jacek Malczewski said: "If I wasn't Polish, I wouldn't be an artist." Jan Matejko wanted to have his spiritual and artistic heir in him, but Malczewski preferred to go his own way. However, he never forgot about master Jan's instructions.

"Paint so that Poland may be resurrected!"
 – Jan Matejko

"Melancholia" is a breakthrough picture for Jacek Malczewski. Thematically, it is the culmination of the previous threads and explorations, as the subtitle written at the back of the canvas says: "Prologue of seeing / The last century in Poland - Tout un siècle". Formally, it surprises us with its spontaneous dynamics, bizarre, abruptly abbreviated poses of figures, as well as intricate construction of space built from several points of view.

"I could write a whole treatise on model setting by Malczewski. There are no imitations here, just the director's mechanism is shown, unveiled. This is what modern directing is all about, that this mechanism is revealed (...) Wrong circle, Melancholy, this is a large scale national opera".
 – Tadeusz Kantor

Jacek Malczewski

Portrait of Tadeusz Błotnicki with Medusa (1902). National Museum in Warsaw, Wikipedia

Jacek Malczewski

Christ in Emmaus (1909) Lviv Art Gallery, Wikipedia

Starting with "The Wrong Circle", Jacek Malczewski combines ancient, fairy-tale and historical themes in his paintings; he mixes classical myths with Polish folklore. In his paintings: "Angel and Shepherdess", "Angel, I'll Follow You" echoes the poems of Teofil Lenartowicz, which Malczewski valued and knew by heart, as well as other literary paintings (Sienkiewicz, Dygasiński), where the protagonist is a rural, unusual child, living his dreams and a sense of another, fantastic reality. Such a child - lonely and misunderstood by its surroundings - was for the symbolists a figure of the artist: a naive soul, unbiased, immersed in nature.

"Calling him a symbolist does not explain everything; for what is striking in his art is that mythology, supernaturality and phantasmagoria blend into everyday, banal reality, in a perfectly natural way, as if nothing ever happened. This will be one of the driving wheels of surrealism - and this makes Malczewski one of the great precursors of 20th century art".
 – Henri Loyrette, dyrektor Musée d’Orsay

Jacek Malczewski is primarily a painter of a man, a human face. The images of friends, often eminent people of the epoch, are a pretext for him to build complex allegories.

"Malczewski didn't so much portray, as judge his models. He often did it in an acute way and on the verge of social indecency".
 – Kazimierz Wyka

There is no doubt that Artur Grottger (1837-1867) shaped Jacek Malczewski's artistic imagination. The painter valued him higher than Jan Matejko. From Grottger's works, Malczewski draws primarily on visions of Polish martyrdom and religious lyricism.

"In the opinion of his contemporaries, Malczewski was considered a continuation of Grottger."
 – Jadwiga Puciata-Pawłowska 

Jacek Malczewski w Muzeach::

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Warsaw: National Museum - Historical Museum - Polish Army Museum. You can admire there, among others..:

„Thanatos” namalowany w latach 1898-1899
„Aniele pójdę za Tobą” namalowany w 1901
„Śmierć” namalowany w 1902
„Hamlet Polski (Portret Aleksandra Wielopolskiego) namalowany w 1903
„Portret Władysława Reymonta” namalowany w 1905
„Autoportret w zbroi” namalowany w 1914
„Święta Agnieszka” namalowany w latach 1920-1921

 

Jacek Malczewski

Wrong wheel (1895-1897). National Museum in Poznań, Wikipedia

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Poznan: National Museum (Raczynski Foundation at the National Museum in Poznan). You can admire there, among others..:

„Melancholia” namalowany w latach 1890-1894
„Śmierć na etapie” namalowany w 1891
„W tumanie” namalowany w latach 1893-1894
„Błędne koło” namalowany w latach 1895-1897
„Portret Adama Asnyka z muzą” namalowany w latach 1895-1897
„Thanatos I” namalowany w 1898
„Portret własny z hiacyntem” namalowany w 1902
„Anioł i Pastuszek” namalowany w 1902
„Wiosna (Krajobraz z Tobiaszem)” namalowany w 1904
„Zatruta studnia” namalowany w 1905
„Zatruta studnia” namalowany w 1906
„Śmierć Ellenai” namalowany w 1907
„Eloe ze zwłokami Ellenai” namalowany w latach 1908-1909
„Święty Jan i Salome” namalowany w 1911
„Tobiasz i Parki” namalowany w 1912

 

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Kielce: National Museum. You can admire there, among others..:

„Polonia” namalowany w 1918
„Herkules na rozstajnych drogach (Portret Aleksandra Wielopolskiego)” namalowany w 1920

 

Jacek Malczewski

USA:

  • Indiana: Uniwersytet Notre-Dame
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Ukraine:

  • Lwów – Lwowska Galeria Obrazów
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Cracow - National Museum - Society of the Friends of Fine Arts - Wawel Royal Castle - Museum of the Jagiellonian University - Academy of Fine Arts. You can admire there, among others..:

„Śmierć Ellenai” namalowany w 1883
„Portret narzeczonej Marii Gralewskiej” namalowany w 1887
„Introdukcja (albo Malraczyk)” namalowany w 1890
„Wigilia na Syberii” namalowany w 1892
„Natchnienie malarza” namalowany w 1897
„Wytchnienie” namalowany w 1899
„Autoportret na tle Wisły” namalowany w 1901
„Nieznana nuta” namalowany w 1902
„Krajobraz znad Wisły” namalowany w 1904
„Autoportret w białym stroju” namalowany w 1914
„Autoportret” namalowany ok. 1917

 

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Wrocław: National Museum. You can admire there, among others..:

„Anioł i Pastuszek” namalowany w 1903

 

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Radom: District Museum. You can admire there, among others..:

„Zatruta studnia – Chimera” namalowany w 1905

 

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Katowice: Silesian Museum. You can admire there, among others..:

„Pożegnanie z pracownią” namalowany w 1913

 

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Other Polish cities:

  • Bydgoszcz: Muzeum im. Leona Wyczółkowskiego
  • Bytom: Muzeum Górnośląskie
  • Gdańsk: Muzeum Narodowe – Muzeum Pomorskie
  • Lublin: Muzeum Lubelskie
  • Łódź: Muzeum Sztuki
  • Oblęgorek: Muzeum Henryka Sienkiewicz (Oddział Muzeum Narodowego w Kielcach)
  • Opole: Muzeum Śląska Opolskiego
  • Płock: Muzeum Mazowieckie
  • Szczecin: Muzeum Pomorza Zachodniego
  • Toruń – Muzeum Okręgowe

 

Jacek Malczewski

(1854-1929)

  • THE FATHER OF POLISH SYMBOLISM 100% 100%
  • MODERN ARTIST 100% 100%
  • COLORFUL NOVELTY 95% 95%
  • CINEMATOGRAPHY OF THE IMAGE 100% 100%
  • FOLKLORE AND ROMANTICISM 95% 95%
Jacek Malczewski

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