Department III - Prints, Drawings and Watercolours
Department III - Prints, Drawings and Watercolours
Department III: Prints, Drawings and Watercolours is one of the largest, oldest, and in terms of iconography one of the most important museum collections of its kind in Poland. It was set up on the basis of collections taken from departments established by the first museum statute of 1883 (Drawings and Watercolours, Prints and Reproductions, Architectural Sections and Plans, and Memorabilia of Adam Mickiewicz).
Until World War II the Department's collections consisted mainly of donations, with some purchases. In fact the core of its collection acquired during the first decades of the Museum's existence consisted almost entirely of a series of valuable endowments. Some benefactors donated their entire personal collection or a substantial part of it, for example Ludwik Skarbek Michałowski, Emeryk Hutten-Czapski, Władysław Bartynowski, Władysław Pobóg Górski, Stanisław Ursyn-Rusiecki, Edward Goldstein, Adolf Sternschuss, Feliks Jasieński and Leon Kostka. Another important source of contributions were bequests made by artists or their heirs. In this way the Museum acquired works by Stanisław Wyspiański, Tomasz Pryliński, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Józef Simmler, Jan Stanisławski, Leon Kowalski, Zbigniew Pronaszko, Olga Boznańska, Henryk Siemiradzki and the recently deceased Jerzy Panek.
From the 1890s the prints and drawings were displayed in the Sukiennice in a room of the so called 'Langierówka' building. It was also around this time that the Museum began to treat the collections of graphics and drawings as a single entity. After the Museum of Count Emeryk Hutten Czapski was opened to the public (which was taken over by the National Museum in Cracow in 1903), the collection was moved to the Czapski palace on Wolska St. (now Piłsudskiego St.). There it was used to stock the Prints Room until the mid-1990s when it was transferred to the Main Building of the Museum. Department III achieved its present composition after reorganisation in the 1950s when paper-based works from other departments were added to it and maps, photographs, and autograph albums were transferred to specialist departments, and a subsequent reorganisation in the 1990s.
Until World War II the Department's collections consisted mainly of donations, with some purchases. In fact the core of its collection acquired during the first decades of the Museum's existence consisted almost entirely of a series of valuable endowments. Some benefactors donated their entire personal collection or a substantial part of it, for example Ludwik Skarbek Michałowski, Emeryk Hutten-Czapski, Władysław Bartynowski, Władysław Pobóg Górski, Stanisław Ursyn-Rusiecki, Edward Goldstein, Adolf Sternschuss, Feliks Jasieński and Leon Kostka. Another important source of contributions were bequests made by artists or their heirs. In this way the Museum acquired works by Stanisław Wyspiański, Tomasz Pryliński, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Józef Simmler, Jan Stanisławski, Leon Kowalski, Zbigniew Pronaszko, Olga Boznańska, Henryk Siemiradzki and the recently deceased Jerzy Panek.
From the 1890s the prints and drawings were displayed in the Sukiennice in a room of the so called 'Langierówka' building. It was also around this time that the Museum began to treat the collections of graphics and drawings as a single entity. After the Museum of Count Emeryk Hutten Czapski was opened to the public (which was taken over by the National Museum in Cracow in 1903), the collection was moved to the Czapski palace on Wolska St. (now Piłsudskiego St.). There it was used to stock the Prints Room until the mid-1990s when it was transferred to the Main Building of the Museum. Department III achieved its present composition after reorganisation in the 1950s when paper-based works from other departments were added to it and maps, photographs, and autograph albums were transferred to specialist departments, and a subsequent reorganisation in the 1990s.