Display of the portrait of Eliza Pareńska and drawings from a private collection

The Stanisław Wyspiański Museum, a branch of the National Museum in Krakow, is located in the Old Granary, a building erected in the 18th century, which over the years has served as a granary, factory, shop, and headquarters of the Association of Polish Architects.

The Wyspiański Museum presents almost 150 works by Stanisław Wyspiański, the vast majority of which are pastel paintings on paper. This technique is sensitive to both microclimate changes, pollution, as well as to light. For this reason, in order to ensure the safety of the collections, the exhibition is subject to cyclical changes.

On the ground floor, you can see Wyspiański’s own portraits supplemented by images of his closest family and people from his surroundings. The space is complemented by views of Krakow: landscapes from the window of the apartment on Krowoderska Street and the interiors of the streets of his hometown.

On the first floor, you can admire the artist’s works, which refer to three main themes in his work. Hence, parts of the exhibition are called “Elements”, “Wawel - drama of kings” and “Apollo-Christ”. The design for the stained glass window “God the Father” and the cardboards for the painted decoration of the Franciscan church in Krakow, the model of the Acropolis, the designs for the stained glass windows for the Wawel Cathedral, the proposals for decorations, furniture and fabrics for the building of the Medical Society in Krakow indicate the multifaceted nature of the artist’s creative activities, from painting, through applied art, to architecture.

In the basement of the building, in the room “My books”, among other things, Stanisław Wyspiański’s book collection is presented with his handwritten notes and first editions of dramas and works by other authors, for which Wyspiański prepared covers and illustrations. In the “Metamorphoses” section, theatrical items are presented: posters for stagings of his plays, selected photos and fragments of films from the most famous stagings and film adaptations of literary works. You can also watch a short VR video about the artist.

The currently presented exhibition has been enriched by a display of Stanisław Wyspiański’s private collection of works related to Eliza Pareńska née Mühleisen (1857–1918) and her husband Stanisław Pareński (1843–1913). Their living room in the palace at 4 Wielopole Street in Krakow gathered almost the entire artistic bohemia of the city at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It was also visited by Stanisław Wyspiański, who portrayed the Pareńskis’ daughters, famous for their beauty and intelligence: Maria (1884–1941), Zofia (1886–1956) and Eliza (1888–1923). He painted the youngest of the sisters, called Lizka, in 1905; it is one of the artist’s most beautiful portraits of the Young Poland period. In addition to this work, five drawings from the Pareński collection, not presented previously to the general public, have been exhibited in a specially arranged space. Subtle, pencil works from the years 1889–1891 come, among others, from the period of Wyspiański’s work on the painted decoration of St. Mary’s Basilica. These are pages from scattered sketchbooks, including “St. Mary’s”, being part of the collections of the National Museum in Krakow and Warsaw and the Lviv National Art Gallery in Lviv.

The private collection will be on show at the Wyspiański branch of the National Museum in Krakow until 4.05.2025.