The Krakow Academy Goes Out into the Open Air
Jan Stanislavski's method of teaching painting was a phenomenon with an unprecedented impact.
Landscape (1905) by Jan StanisławskiThe National Museum in Krakow
Times of landscape
Józef Mehoffer wrote: The history of our art will one day record the landscape era of the Stanisławski school (...) and will conclude with satisfaction that the Polish landscape in those years was strong and who knows whether it will not utter words of regret that it lasted so short a time.
Jan Stanisławski
Jan Stanisławski was born in 1860 in Vilshana (now Ukraine), as the son of a law professor, a lecturer at the universities of Kharkiv and Kazan. From childhood he sketched and painted.
Dusk at the Dnieper River (1905) by Jan StanisławskiThe National Museum in Krakow
Stanisławski studied mathematics in Warsaw and St. Petersburg, and later studied painting: in Warsaw with Wojciech Gerson and in Paris. Throughout his life he traveled extensively in Europe, often returning to the childhood surroundings.
Jan Stanisławski's paintings are characterized by an open, sectional composition. Photographic frames emphasize the impression of a fragment of continuum. We will not see people in the paintings - the protagonists are nature and landscape, theirs colors and light.
Grey Spring Day (1903) by Jan StanisławskiThe National Museum in Krakow
Local landscapes
Jan Stanisławski painted wild, common plants: thistles, mallows, poppies, shrubs, meadows and balks. He used to tell his students: paint the Polish countryside, because in a few years there will be none left.
The artist created small oil paintings on canvas, dicot and cardboard. Many of them depict a single motif, to which the entire composition is subordinated.
Theme from the Planty Park (1934) by Stanisław KamockiThe National Museum in Krakow
Landscape school
In 1897, he began working as a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, a course in landscape painting. He was a popular teacher and an authority on art.
Because of his natural leadership and organizational skills, he quickly became an important personality in Krakow's cultural life. Students in Stanisławski's studio participated in mandatory plein air painting classes. Stanisławski taught the creation of compositions from nature, encouraged the recording of changing weather conditions and the search for subjects in harmony with the rhythm of seasons.
Stanisławski’s way of teaching painting was a phenomenon of unprecedented impact. About 70 painting students passed through the "Stanisławski school" during ten years at the Academy of Fine Arts. Many of them went on to create landscapes, based on the experience of studying with the master.
Stryjski Park in Lviv (1917/1921) by Ludwik MiskyThe National Museum in Krakow
Stanisławski in the memories one of his students
The word "school" contains several diverse contents. The most important, because the most profound, will be the one that under the school understands the legacy of the master's beloved, by right of inheritance taken by the students.
Among Stanisławski’s devoted students were: Stanisław Kamocki (1875-1944), Stanisław Czajkowski (1878-1954), Józef Czajkowski (1872-1947), Stefan Filipkiewicz (1879-1944), Henryk Szczygliński (1891-1944) and others.
Landscape from Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (1922) by Abraham NeumanThe National Museum in Krakow
The legend of Jan Stanisławski
In Marcin Samlicki's memoirs: The legend [of Stanisławski] preserves the memory of a good, cheerful, witty, educated and enthusiastic man. We valued him, believing deeply in his talent and knowledge, we feared, and coveted ardently his criticism, which often cut like a razor our conceit and certainty, but which also knew how to highlight our virtues, especially hidden and unconscious, to give them a weighty value.
Jan and Janina Stanisławski (1903) by UnknownThe National Museum in Krakow
Jan and Janina Stanisławski
The artist married Janina née Roszkowski a few years before his death. Together they ran a house where they hosted the Krakow artistic community. After her husband's death, Janina Stanisławska donated over 100 paintings and the artist's sketchbooks to the National Museum in Krakow.
Jan Stanisławski posthumous exhibition and exhibition of works by his students (1907) by Ferdynand RuszczycThe National Museum in Krakow
Commemoration of the teacher
The exhibition of Jan Stanisławski and his students of the Landscape School at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts was prepared after the artist's premature death in 1907.
Text: Agata Jabłońska, based on the catalogue of the collections of the National Museum in Krakow
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