Young Poland Movement

An FDC from Poland 🇵🇱- a beautiful cachet and a beautiful matching stamp ! 

Poland on January 15,2019 honoured one of its famous artist - Stanislaw Wyspiański by issuing a stamp! 

In the 1890s, a new wave of artistic energy inspired by the Western European Art Noveau style rolled through the Polish lands. The heart of the new Młoda Polska (Young Poland) movement that influenced art for two decades was in Austrian-occupied Kraków. Although many forms of art were involved - from literature to graphic art - one Cracovian artist left a legacy that foreign visitors to the city can easily track down and enjoy: Stanislaw Wyspiański (1869-1907). 

( a postcard inside the FDC with a self portrait by the renowned artist ) 

Not your regular artist, he was a painter, poet, dramatist, theatre reformer, stage designer and typographer. Wyspiański started his career by working on the renovation of the Holy Cross Church and, together with Jozef Mehoffer under the supervision of Jan Matejko, of St. Mary’s Basilica. Here he had the chance to see a master at work, and develop his skills designing stained-glass windows. His break came in 1895, when he was asked to design the wallpaintings of the Franciscan Church, which had been damaged in a fire in 1850. Inspired by St. Francis’ love of nature, Wyspiański depicted huge violets, roses and geraniums and abstract snowflakes in geometric patterns. Despite numerous conflicts with the monks over the style, he was next asked in 1897 to design the stained-glass windows of the church.

( a postcard inside the FDC with his famous stained glass work in Franciscan Church ) 

 In the choir, one window depicts Blessed Salomea; two others are of St. Francis. The other three have abstract floral motifs. The jaw-dropper is the large God the Father: Let it Be, above the western entrance, where God is seen zapping life into the planet amidst curly wisps of mist. The northern chapel incidentally contains Stations of the Cross stained-glass windows by Mehoffer.

Wyspiański’s talents led him to become director of the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts. In addition to the window designs, he was a talented painter, famous for his series of views of Kościuszko Mound and the enchanting pictures of his children. He also was one of the people behind a plan to replace Austrian-era buildings on Wawel hill with an impressively domed Polish Acropolis. Bad health continued to torment him however - the shocking designs he made for the Wawel Cathedral windows (unsettling pictures of royal cadavers) hinting at his mental problems. Much of his designs were influenced by his frequent travels across Central Europe, though his artistic ideals were not limited to design. 

A gifted playwright he is commonly lauded as the founder of modern Polish drama, his defining work being Wesele (The Wedding), which that tells the story of a chaotic wedding reception, while sarcastically criticising 18th century Polish society. At the end of his life, the depressions sometimes took the overhand, and in one fit he destroyed some of the window designs. When he died at 38 he left behind a huge legacy of artworks and ideas and is today hailed as one of the true icons of Polish culture.

A postcard inside the FDC showing another of his famous painting - Straw covers on Rosebushes ! 

The work of Stanisław Wyspiański was inseparably tied to the city of Krakow and the pastel Straw Covers on Rosebushes, one of the artist’s most famous pictures, is no exception. Wyspiański presents an evening scene of the Planty park surrounding Krakow’s old town. Looming in the background, past the dark tangles of leafless tree branches, is the silhouette of Wawel Hill with its Royal Castle and cathedral. The alley running through the park is lit by gas lights. But it is not Wawel Hill, the lights or the trees that are of primary importance here. The foreground is populated by a number of mysterious-looking straw covers sheltering rose bushes in anticipation of winter.

In his work, Wyspiański chose the straw cover as a symbol of cyclical rebirth. Indeed, beneath the outer layer of straw a dormant life waits to blossom in spring with even more vigour than before. For the artist, nature’s winter slumber was a romantic metaphor for the dormancy of a nation in bondage waiting to be awakened.

A beautiful representation of Poland - during his years - a land occupied and re occupied by warring empires - waiting to be free, independent and glowing in its own glory ! And a century later - I am sure Stanislaw will be happy in his grave to see an independent and vibrant Poland ;) 

Thanks Wojtek - for yet another cover and stamp that gives a glimpse of your beautiful motherland ( oh ! Fatherland - I suppose ) !!