Malczewski and Vienna: New Facts

Abstract

The Polish version of the article was published in Roczniki Humanistyczne vol. 65, issue 4 (2017).

The article presents, apart from the well-known facts concerning Malczewski’s connections with Viennese institutions and art circles, unknown archive materials, including: 1. letters exchanged between the artist and Juliusz Twardowski (a ministerial official) regarding the lease of a workshop at the Prater district of Vienna (letters were written between 1900–1913 and in 1925); 2. photographic documentation (19 items from the years 1890–1911) of the XXXIX. Ausstellung der Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs Secession in Vienna that featured 40 paintings by Malczewski and the sculpture Procession to Wawel by Wacław Szymanowski. The manuscripts indicate that Malczewski kept a secret atelier abroad and he most definitely worked there (it was either during one prolonged period, or two periods each lasting a few years). It contradicts the naïve opinions that Malczewski, being a patriot, could not stand separation from his homeland.

Photographs with dates and signatures complete the information from the catalogue; they allow for the matching of the ambiguous titles with photographs, and consequently help to identify the paintings shown at the exhibition. Some paintings presented in the photos are not known today, therefore the photographs constitute valuable iconographic material. The documents prove, for instance, that Spring. Landscape with Tobias (1904) was presented in Vienna. It is startling that the painting’s synthetic form was not acknowledged by the critics in Vienna. Just after the World War I, Malczewski wrote a letter to the President of the Wiener Secession in which he stated that the war had not been beneficial to any of the martyred and agitated nations and he had hoped for cooperation between the artists in the time of peace that would not be shaped by national interests or politics.