Stanisà Âaw Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiaà Âski (; 15 January 1869 â 28 November 1907) was a Polish playwright, painter, poet, and interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created symbolic national dramas accordant with the artistic premises of the Young Poland movement.
Wyspiaà Âski was one of the most outstanding and multifaceted artists in Poland under the foreign partitions. He combined modernism with traditional Polish folk and Romantic themes. He became known unofficially as a fourth Polish bard, after the earlier Three Bards: Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Sà Âowacki, and Zygmunt Krasià Âski).
Stanisà Âaw Wyspiaà Âski was born to Franciszek Wyspiaà Âski and Maria Rogowska. His father, a sculptor, owned an at the foot of Wawel Hill, in the Dà Âugosz House. His mother died of tuberculosis in 1876 when Stanisà Âaw was seven years old. Due to problems with alcohol, Stanisà Âaw's father could not fulfil his parental responsibilities. Stanisà Âaw was adopted by his aunt Joanna Stankiewiczowa and her husband Kazimierz. The Stankiewicz family belonged to the bourgeois intellectual class. In their house, Wyspiaà Âski became acquainted with painter Jan Matejko, who was a frequent visitor. Matejko soon recognized that the boy had artistic talent and gave him his first artistic guidance. Wyspiaà Âski attended Saint Anne's secondary school. The school was unique for several reasons. First, although the Polish language was forbidden in educational institutions under foreign rule, the lectures at Saint Anne's were delivered in Polish. Second, the teacher's goal was to equip the students with a thorough knowledge of Polish history and literature. Third, graduates of the school, including Lucjan Rydel, Stanisà Âaw Estreicher and Henryk Opieà Âski, were considered prominent figures in Kraków's cultural life. As a student, Wyspiaà Âski took particular interest in art and literature. According to Joanna Stankiewiczowa, the young Stanisà Âaw portrayed small cottages, animals, plants, armors and decorations. Wyspiaà Âski also created a dramatic interpretation of Matejko's painting Stefan Batory pod Pskowem (Bathory at Pskov).
In 1887 Wyspiaà Âski enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy at Jagiellonian University and the School of Fine Arts in Kraków. While studying at the university, he attended lectures in art, history and literature. Jan Matejko, the dean of the School of Fine Arts, soon recognized Wyspiaà Âski's talent and asked him to join in the creation of a polychrome inside the Mariacki Church.
The years 1890âÂÂ1895 were devoted to travel. Wyspiaà Âski visited Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Prague and France. His stay in France is regarded as a major point in his artistic life. He studied at the private Académie Colarossi. Since the school fee was very high, Wyspiaà Âski applied for a grant. During his stay in France he got acquainted with Paul Gauguin. Together they visited art museums, where Wyspiaà Âski was bewitched by the beauty of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes's paintings. He also attended theatre performances based on Shakespeare and classical era plays. His future dramas Daniel i Meleager (Daniel and Meleagra) and Powrót Odysa (Return of Odysseus) were based on the antique tradition. Meanwhile, he worked on several dramas, Królowa Polskiej Korony (The Queen of Polish Crown), Warszawianka (Varsovian Anthem) and the first version of Legenda (Legend). The play Legenda (Legend) was based on the famous Polish legend of Wars and Sawa. In August 1894 he returned to Kraków, where he got involved in the modernist movement. It was then he designed and partially made a polychrome for the Franciscan Church that was composed of flowery, geometrical and heraldic motifs. Moreover, the prior of the church encouraged Wyspiaà Âski to design various stained glass windows, such as Blessed Salomea, Saint Francis Stigmata and God the Father. Wyspiaà Âski received an award from the Polish Academy of Learning for the landscape of the Kopiec Koà Âciuszki (Koà Âciuszko Mound). As a painter, interior designer and poet he cooperated with the Municipal Theatre in Kraków. First he designed furniture and scenography for the theatre performances, then he staged various dramas on the stage of the theatre.
He cooperated with the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Art and in mid-1898 was named art manager of the weekly à »ycie (Life). Unfortunately, his first published dramas, Legenda (Legend), (1897) and Daniel i Meleager (Daniel and Meleagra) (1898), did not receive the acclaim of the critics. It was the Warszawianka (Varsovian Anthem) that brought instantaneous acclaim to its author. The premiere of the drama marked his debut as a playwright of national dramas. The theatre premiere of the drama on 2 July 1901 starred Helena Modrzejewska as Maria. The years 1899âÂÂ1900 marked the publication of Protesilas i Laodamia (Protesilas and Laodamia), Lelewel (Lelevel) and Legion. This drama is regarded to be the author's polemic displaying a romantic vision of history. In 1900, Wyspiaà Âski married the mother of his four children, Teodora Pytko. In November the same year he participated in the wedding of his friend Lucjan Rydel in Bronowice, a village near Kraków. The wedding party was the inspiration for his widely acclaimed play Wesele (The Wedding). It is a deeply critical yet sarcastic exposé of Polish society of the 19th century. "Wesele" transformed Wyspianski from a moderately successful visual and verbal artist associated with the Young Poland movement into a national dramatist-visionary whose significance in Poland is comparable to Yeats's in Ireland, O'Neill's in America, or Maeterlinck's in Belgium." The drama made references to the contemporary situation in Poland and depicted a powerless society. Although censorship barred the sale of copies of Wesele (The Wedding), the play was staged in the theatre.
After the success of Wesele (The Wedding) four new plays based on Polish history were published: Wyzwolenie (Liberation), Achilles, Bolesà Âaw à Âmiaà Ây (Boleslaus The Bold) and Legenda II (Legend 2). The following years were devoted to publishing of Skaà Âka and Powrót Odysa (Return of Odysseus); meanwhile Wyspiaà Âski translated Corneillea's Cyd (Le Cid) and Voltaire's Zaïre.
In 1906 Wyspiaà Âski became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. He was also a member of the city council. In his last years, Wyspianski's health deteriorated. As a result, he underwent medical treatments in Rymanów and Bad Hall and then settled in his small cottage in the village of WÃÂgrzce. He died of syphilis, which was incurable at the time. His funeral took place in Kraków and became a national day of mourning. Wyspiaà Âski was buried in the Crypt of the Distinguished in the Skaà Âka Church.
Wyspiaà Âski's artistic output is very eclectic. Among dramas and poetry, there are views of Cracow (drawings, sketch-books, oil-paintings, pastel drawings), portraits and self-portraits, designs of stained glass windows and paintings, illustrations, graphic art, and designs for furniture and interiors, and development of Wawel.
Drawings, such as his 1890 self-portrait, and drafts from his journeys across Europe and Poland, are among Wyspiaà Âski's better-known works. He later created a herbarium by drawing plants. However, he most frequently used soft pastel techniques; his first pastel drawings were produced between 1890 and 1894. They mainly present the artist's family, friends and other artists. Wyspiaà Âski eagerly drew his children in everyday situations such as sleeping or feeding, including Helenka (1900), pastel drawing, owned by the National Museum in Kraków; à Âpiàcy Staà  (Sleeping Staà Â) (1902), pastel drawing, Silesian Museum in Katowice; à Âpiàcy Mietek (Sleeping Mietek) (1904), pastel drawing, Museum of Art in à Âódà º; Macierzyà Âstwo (Motherhood) (1905), pastel drawing, National Museum in Kraków; and à »ona artysty z synkiem Stasiem (The Artist's Wife with Their Son Staà Â) (1904), pastel drawing, now at the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom.
Using this technique, he painted many of his acquaintances and artists, among others Kazimierz Lewandowski, Jacek Malczewski, Eliza Pareà Âska, the Krysztaà Âowicz family, Ludwik Solski, Irena Solska, and Jan Stanisà Âawski. He painted landscapes of Kraków â the Kraków Planty Park with desmans (also painted in oil), the Vistula Rudawa River, cottages in GrÃÂbowo, and at the end of his life, views from his studio to the Koà Âciuszko Mound. He also created a poster for Maeterlinck's WnÃÂtrze (Interior).
Part of his output constitutes various designs â mainly stained glass windows, polychromes and interiors. Stanisà Âaw Wyspiaà Âski and Józef Mehoffer designed 36 stained glass windows together for the Mariacki Church in Kraków to help Matejko with the church conservation he had been involved with since 1889. During their stay in Paris they both made two boxes for the competition of the Rudolfinum Hall Decoration Design in Prague and curtain designs for the Juliusz Sà Âowacki Theatre in Kraków. However, Wyspiaà Âski himself designed stained glass windows and polychromes for the Franciscan Church in Kraków (with the famous stained glass window Staà  siÃÂ), stained glass windows depicting Saint Stanislaus, Kazimierz the Great and Henryk Poboà ¼ny for Wawel Cathedral (not executed until 2005âÂÂ2007 in the Wyspiaà Âski 2000 Pavilion), the design of a showroom of the Fine Arts Society (1904), and stairs and hall decoration for the Medical Society. In 1905 Wyspiaà Âski and Wà Âadysà Âaw Ekielski designed a scheme for redevelopment of the Wawel Hill (the so-called Acropolis).
At the beginning the Stanisà Âaw Wyspiaà Âski Museum in Kraków was located in the Szoà Âayski tenement house built in the 17th century. Since 2021, the Old Granary has housed the Stanisà Âaw Wyspiaà Âski Museum. It is a new division of the National Museum in Kraków, sometimes referred to as the NMK Wyspiaà Âski. The museum holds the largest collection of Stanisà Âaw Wyspiaà Âski's works in Poland, including 1 100 objects.
At All Saints' Square, the Wyspiaà Âski 2000 Information Exhibition Pavilion is a rare example of contemporary architecture in the Old Town, featuring three of Wyspiaà Âski's stained glass windows.
In 1996 a for Stanisà Âaw Wyspiaà Âski was unveiled at Hotel Nordbahn (since 2008 Austria Classic Hotel Wien) at PraterstraÃÂe 72 in Vienna's Leopoldstadt, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the ÃÂsterreichisch-Polnische Gesellschaft (Austrian-Polish Society) and Wyspiaà Âski's frequents stays at the hotel, where among other things he wrote his German dramatic fragment "Weimar 1829" in summer 1904.
In front of the new National Museum building in Kraków on 3-go Maja Street there is a monument to Stanisà Âaw Wyspiaà Âski. 2007 was named the Year of Stanisà Âaw Wyspiaà Âski by the Polish Sejm.