Drawing to the end of its display is a lovely room at the National Portrait Gallery devoted to the first ever UK exhibition of portraits by the late-Victorian Polish artist Stanisław Wyspiański (1869 to 1907).
Wyspiański was an impressive polymath. He was an interior and furniture designer and conceived monumental schemes for churches and public buildings. He was also a playwright who is often credited with inaugurating modern Polish theatre, during the same period as Ibsen in Norway and Chekhov in Russia.
In his day Poland didn’t actually exist as an independent state and was still partitioned between Prussia, Austria and Russia. The city he grew up in, Krakow, was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So Wyspiański was among the artists and writers seeking to create a new national art based on folk traditions, the Polish language and its distinctive heritage. The Young Poland movement which he belonged to contributed to helping bring about Polish independence in 1918.
Based in Kraków, Wyspiański did much to innovate not only theatre, stage design and architecture, but wrote poems and – the reason we’re here – drew and painted. He worked mainly in pastels, using a characteristically bold black outline to make clear but stylised images which are clearly influenced by a number of late nineteenth century trends, including Art Nouveau, Japanese woodcuts, and the strong stylised moulding of Paul Gauguin.
This stylised and idealised image of his wife, Teodora Pytko, suckling their baby son Staś, watched by his daughters, is one of the most famous portraits in Polish art. In fact the two girls on the left is a doubling of his one daughter, Helenka. The more you look at the face facing us the more she looks like a spooky Symbolist head, hovering amid the stylised foliage.
Maternity by Stanisław Wyspiański (1905) pastel on paper, National Museum in Kraków
The 16 paintings and drawings in this exhibition have been selected to focus on portraits of writers, artists and politicians who Wyspiański knew or worked with. Rather shamefully, they have never been exhibited in the UK before. They all radiate a wonderful charm, sympathetic and intimacy. Here’s a portrait of the actress Władysława Ordon-Sosnowska in theatrical costume.
Portrait of Władysława Ordon-Sosnowska in the role of Krasawica in the drama ‘Bolesław the Bold’ by Stanisław Wyspiański (1093)
There is some overlap with the big exhibition of Edvard Munch portraits recently staged here at the NPG. Munch and Wyspiański were connected through the writer Stanisław Przybyszewski who was a close friend of Munch, a critic of his work, and introduced Wyspiański to Munch’s art in Berlin.
A portrait of Przybyszewski is included in the show, but I’m choosing to share this portrait, of physician, social activist, politician and professor, Julian Nowak, because it highlights Wyspiański’s technique. It’s done with pastel and note the different types of shading he creates. The different hues of the face – the deft combination of brown, orange, red, yellow, grey – are interesting and tangy. But the obviously striking thing is the deliberately rough treatment of Nowak’s black coat which creates a magically vivid and dynamic effect.
Julian Nowak by Stanisław Wyspiański (1904) private collection, on loan to the National Museum in Krakow
Vivid and at the same time precise, isn’t it? In my opinion Wyspiański has a claim to be a more consistently attractive and accurate portrait painter than Munch.
I mentioned his children. Here’s one of the most attractive and charming ones, a portrait of his daughter, Helenka. Note the contrast between the fine detail of the girl’s dress and the rough shading of the background wallpaper. And also the unusual tilted nature of the image, demonstrating the same kind of casual attitude to classical perspective you see in Gauguin or Van Gogh. There’s more table surface in the image than child, and yet this somehow brings out her delicacy and detail all the more.
Little Helen with a Vase by Stanisław Wyspiański (1902)
Summary
I’m afraid I’ve come to reviewing this lovely little exhibition very late and it closes this Saturday. It’s completely FREE so if you’re in central London this week and have half an hour to spare, it’s worth dropping in and savouring these lovely, beautifully drawn and often charming images.
Related links
- Stanisław Wyspiański: Portraits continues at the National Portrait Gallery until 13 July 2025
- Lengthy biograph and slideset of all the images in the show on the Culture.PL website
- 110 portraits by Stanisław Wyspiański
- Stanisław Wyspiański’s Google Culture and Arts page
Books & Boots 