Twenty Young Friends

Description

The photograph depicts a group of twenty friends who formed a kind of informal artistic and literary society in Kraków in the 1860s. Artur Grottger’s brief visit to Kraków on 27 January 1865 provided an opportunity to take this commemorative photograph (the specific date is confirmed by an inscription on a large boulder). Based on the memoirs of one of the participants, Adam Bełcikowski, the people in the photograph can be identified. They are: Jan Kanty Turski (1833–1870), Józef Jaroszyński (1835–1900), Artur Grottger (1837–1867), Kazimierz Hofman (1842–1911), Feliks Szynalewski (1825–1892), Józef Szujski (1835–1883), Jan Matejko (1838–1893), Edward Lubowski (1837–1923), Adam Bełcikowski (1839–1909), Michał Bałucki (1837–1901), Parys Filippi (1836–1874), Aleksander Gostkowski (1839–1892), Henryk Szymański (1839–1885), Franciszek Michał Wyspiański (1837–1901), Aleksander Kotsis (1836–1877), Franciszek Mokrzycki (dates unknown), Florian Cynk (1838–1912), Władysław Ludwik Anczyc (1823–1883), Walery Gadomski (1833–1911) and Walery Rzewuski (1837–1888).

The original photograph was taken by Walery Rzewuski at his establishment on Kopernika Street, and the figures were picturesquely posed in the courtyard of the outbuilding by Artur Grottger himself. However, this specific print was made by Józef Sebald, as evidenced by the dry stamp in the bottom right-hand corner of the print, which was made from Walery Rzewuski’s negative after 1893. At that time, Sebald took over Rzewuski’s photographic studio, along with the negatives, from which he produced numerous prints. 

We invite you to explore the material on this item in the digital catalogue of the National Museum in Kraków’s collections. Author of the entry: Agnieszka Zagrajek