Jacek Malczewski Plaque
Kraków Artists: Painters and Sculptors
A commemorative plaque in the Old Town dedicated to Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929), one of the main representatives of Symbolism at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was born in Radom, and at the age of 17 moved to Kraków, where he attended St Jacek's grammar school; in 1872 he began his artistic education under Leon Piccard and became an auditor at the Kraków School of Fine Arts. He died in Kraków on 8 October 1929. The frieze on the facade of the Palace of Art, some hundreds of metres away, was designed by him.
History
The plaque at 8 Krupnicza Street commemorates Jacek Malczewski, one of the leading Symbolist painters of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The painter moved to this address in 1911.
Malczewski was born in 1854 in Radom. At the age of seventeen he moved to Kraków and began attending St Jacek's Grammar School. In 1872 he started his artistic training with Leon Piccard and became an auditing student at the School of Fine Arts, where he began regular studies a year later. His teachers there were Władysław Łuszczkiewicz and Feliks Szynalewski, and Jan Matejko thought highly of his early drawings. In 1875 he went to Paris to continue his studies, and after returning he completed a composition course in Matejko's master class in 1879.
The breakthrough in his career came with the paintings "Melancholia" and "The Vicious Circle", regarded as manifestos of Symbolism in Polish painting. They inspired Stanisław Wyspiański when he was writing "The Wedding". In 1896 Malczewski became a lecturer at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, a year later he was among the founders of the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka", and from 1899 to 1911 he taught painting to women, who could not yet study at the Academy, at the A. Baraniecki Higher Courses for Women. In 1912 he became rector of the Academy. He died in Kraków on 8 October 1929.
He also designed the frieze on the façade of the Palace of Art on Szczepański Square.
Did you know?
Malczewski wished to be buried at Salwator Cemetery, but in line with the wishes of representatives of the Academy of Fine Arts and the Society of Fine Arts he was laid to rest in the Crypt of the Distinguished at Skałka.