Stanisław Wyspiański

Stanisław Wyspiański (15 January 1869 – 28 November 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 Poland under the foreign partitions. 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).

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 problems with alcohol, 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 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 his first artistic guidance. Wyspiański attended Saint Anne's Secondary. The school was unique for several reasons. Firstly, although the 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, graduates of the school, including Lucjan Rydel, Stanisław Estreicher and Henryk Opieński, were considered prominent figures in Kraków's cultural life. As a student, Wyspiański took particular interest in art and literature. According to Joanna Stankiewiczowa, a young Stanisław portrayed small cottages, animals, plants, armors and decorations. Wyspiański also 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.

The years 1890–1895 were devoted to traveling. Wyspiański visited Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Prague and France. His stay in France is regarded to have been a major point in his artistic life. He studied at the private Académie Colarossi. Since the school fee was very high, Wyspiański applied for a grant. During his 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 classical era 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 from 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.

He cooperated with the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Art and in mid-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 the acclaim of the critics. It was the Warszawianka (Varsovian Anthem) that brought instantaneous acclaim to its 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 displaying a romantic vision of history. In 1900, Wyspiański married the mother of his four children Teodora Pytko. In November 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." The drama made references to the contemporary situation in Poland, and showed a picture of a powerless society. Although censorship barred the sale of copies of Wesele (The Wedding), the play was staged in the theatre.

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 the condition of Wyspianski's health deteriorated. As a result, he underwent medical treatments in Rymanów and Bad Hall and then settled in his small cottage in the village of Węgrzce. He died of syphilis which was incurable at the time. His funeral took place in Kraków and became a national day of mourning. Wyspiański was buried in the Crypt of the Distinguished in the Skałka Church.

Creative output

Wyspiański's artistic output is very eclectic. Among dramas and poetry, one can find 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 his 1890 self-portrait, and drafts from his journeys across Europe and Poland, are among Wyspiański's better-known works. He later created a herbarium by drawing plants. He, however, most frequently used soft pastel techniques; 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, including: Helenka, 1900, pastel drawing, owned by the National Museum in Kraków; Śpiący Staś (Sleeping Staś), 1902, pastel drawing, Silesian Museum in Katowice; Śpiący Mietek (Sleeping Mietek), 1904, pastel drawing, the Museum of Art in Łódź; Macierzyństwo (The Motherhood), 1905, pastel drawing, National Museum in Kraków; and Żona artysty z synkiem Stasiem (The Artist's Wife with their Son Staś), 1904, pastel drawing, now at 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 also created a poster for Maeterlinck's Wnętrze (Interior).

A part of his output constitutes various designs – mainly stained glass windows, polychromes and interiors. Stanisław Wyspiański and Józef Mehoffer designed 36 stained glass windows together for the Mariacki Church in Kraków to help Matejko with the church conservation he had been involved with since 1889. During their stay in Paris they both made two boxes 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 and Władysław Ekielski designed the conversion of the Wawel Hill (the so-called Acropolis).

Leading stage plays

• Warszawianka (Varsovian Anthem), (1898)
• Klątwa (The Curse), (1899)
• Protesilas i Leodamia (1899)
• Meleager (1899)
• Legion (1900)
• Wesele (The Wedding), (1901)
• Wyzwolenie (Liberation), (1903)
• Weimar 1829, (Fragment, 1904)
• Noc listopadowa (November Night), (1904)
• Acropolis (1904)
• Skałka (1907)
• Powrót Odysa (Return of Odysseus), (1907)
• Zygmunt August (1907 – unfinished)