Józef Mehoffer House
Kraków Artists: Painters and Sculptors
A museum devoted to Józef Mehoffer, a branch of the National Museum in Kraków, in the artist's former home at Krupnicza Street 26. The present brick house was built after the Kraków fire of 1850 by the grandparents of Stanisław Wyspiański, the Rogowski family, and Wyspiański himself was born in it in 1869. In 1932 the 63-year-old Józef Mehoffer bought the house and, after four years of renovation, moved in with his family; they called it the "Little Palace under the Pine Cones" after the pine cones carved in wood that decorate the hall and staircase. The idea of a museum was put forward in 1963 by the artist's son, Zbigniew Mehoffer.
History
The house at Krupnicza Street 26 has a longer history than its present name suggests. The brick building was put up after the fire of Kraków in 1850 by the Rogowski family, the grandparents of Stanisław Wyspiański, and in 1869 Wyspiański himself was born here. Later the owner was Józef Szujski, who in 1873 rebuilt the house to a design by Antoni Łuszczkiewicz: he added a storey, a centrally placed staircase with a skylight and several rooms.
In 1932 it was bought by Józef Mehoffer, who was then 63. After a four-year renovation he moved in with his family and designed the interiors himself. The household called the building the "Little Palace under the Pine Cones" after the carved wooden stone-pine cones decorating the hall and staircase.
Mehoffer was born in 1869 in Ropczyce and studied at the Kraków School of Fine Arts under Jan Matejko. He became one of the most important artists of the Young Poland movement. In Paris he shared a studio with Wyspiański, with whom in 1891 he designed the stained-glass window "The Life of Mary" for St Mary's Basilica. The stained-glass windows for Fribourg Cathedral, which he won in an international competition with 47 artists taking part, occupied 40 years of his life. From 1905 he was a professor at the Kraków School of Fine Arts and served three times as its rector. He died in 1946.
The idea of a museum was put forward in 1963 by the artist's son, Zbigniew Mehoffer. Renovation began in 1979, and once it was finished, the house and garden were handed over to the National Museum in accordance with the family's wishes. The interiors were recreated on the basis of archival photographs, family correspondence and the recollections of the artist's grandson Ryszard Mehoffer and his sister. The museum opened in 1996. The exhibition occupies 16 rooms; among other things you can see the paintings "Portrait of the Artist's Wife against a Pegasus" and "In the Summer Residence" and the stained-glass windows "Caritas", "Vita somnium breve" and "Faith, Hope, Love". Next to the house is a garden that Mehoffer designed in 1932; after years of neglect it was restored and opened on 20 May 2004.
Did you know?
When the garden was laid out in the 1930s, Renaissance tiles were dug up from a pottery workshop that once operated here, along with the remains of sculptures from Franciszek Wyspiański's workshop.