Stanisław Wyspiański, was born #OTD in 1869.

One of the most prominent members of the Young Poland art movement, Wyspiański's polymathic body of work encompassed paintings, pastels, stained glass windows, plays, poems, together with costume, set, furniture, & interior design 1/

Young Poland incorporated traditional folk styles, geometric & organic patterns with the modern ideas of Art Deco & Art Nouveau as well as the British Arts & Crafts movement in search of a distinctly Polish artistic national identity set in international movements 2/

So, I thought I'd add some of my favourite works of his today 3/

In 1904 he was commissioned to decorate the interior of Kraków's Medical Society. Wyspiański created furniture, friezes, & chandeliers shaped like snowflakes based on photos through a microscope by Wilson Bentley - His way of marking the city getting electricity in that year 4/

The project was commissioned by the society's president, Juliusz Nowak. Its centrepiece was Wyspiański triptych stained glass window of Apollo. Bound up, Apollo recalls both the figure of Christ from his play Wyzwolenie (Liberation) & Copernicus’ heliocentric observations 5/

At the time, the Medical & Astronomical societies were due to merge.

His teacher, Jan Matejko’s masterpiece Conversations with God, makes a statement about the astronomer’s Polish identity, perhaps Wyspiański is referring to Poland reassertion of a national identity 6/

This design was intended for Lwów/Lviv Cathedral as a statement on Polish identity. ‘Polonia’ shows the King with a female Poland personified, a girl dressed in Krakovian costume, & the Virgin Mary. The folk styles meant the work was rejected. It was finally recreated in 2019 7/

In the 1890s Wyspiański travelled Europe. While in France he befriended Paul Gauguin whose influence can be seen in the portraiture style he developed.

Recently, a sketch of Annah, a Javan model of Gauguin’s, by Wyspiański was discovered on the back of another of his works 8/

Among his best pastel portraits were those of children, his own & friends'. That of Józio Feldman - son of an artist & critic linked to Young Poland, is well known. I remember my Grandmother bringing a copy when I was young. My favourite is of his daughter Helenka with a vase 9/

Gauguin’s influence can also be found in Wyspiański’s portraits of his wife, Teodora Teofila Pytko. In his 'Self-portrait with Wife' he shows their attachment to local identity & tradition with Teofila dressed in a distinctive Krakovian folk costume 10/

Wyspiański’s fascination with folklore, traditional culture, & national history shaped his costume design, both in his portraits & the preparatory drawings for his plays. As well as being a playwright, he imagined & designed all the costumes & staging 11/

His most famous play, Wesele (The Wedding), is a study of national identity through supernatural apparitions & patriotic uprisings. It’s inspired by a real wedding of his friends. At the time there was a trend for marriages between the members of the nobility & peasant women 12/

One apparition in Wesele is the Chochoł - Piles of mulch which induce the wedding party into a trance-like dance.

The original title of his painting Chochoły (Dolls Dancing in Planty Park) tells you it's set near Wawel Castle. In 1904 the scene inspired Stanisław Kuczborski 13/