Stanislaw Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański, Krakow 1869, was one of the most multifaceted and outstanding artists of his time in Europe, as this painter, architect and cabinetmaker was also a very influential Polish playwright.
In 1887, Wyspiański studied at the Philosophy Department of Jagiellonian University as well as at the Kraków School of Art. During this time, he read extensively on art, history, and literature, which proved decisive for his future. A prestigious figure, the Polish artist Jan Matejko, greatly encouraged his artistic pursuits.
He began traveling at the age of twenty, which was crucial to his development. He lived and worked abroad for a long period, between 1890 and 1894: Wyspiański visited Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Prague, and of course France. He eventually settled in Paris, where he is said to have met Gauguin and the group known as the Nabis.
Wyspiański blended Art Nouveau with themes from Polish history. His work reflects the vision of 'total art' that many artists had championed, influenced by figures such as Richard Wagner, whose music he discovered in Munich. Stanislaw Wyspiański was an active painter, illustrator, typographer, musician, theater director, and playwright.
Between 1895 and 1897, he created the renowned stained-glass windows for the Franciscan Church in Krakow, expressing a certain religious and earthy emotion, but which remain an illustrative reference point for the evolution of art in the turn of the century. In this sense, Wyspiański contributed to the beginning of Krakow's modernization process, which others completed in the 20th century.
His name is inextricably linked to Young Poland (in Polish: Młoda Polska). He championed the themes of Neo-Romanticism, Symbolism, Impressionism, and Art Nouveau. Indeed, this was a Polish modernist period in art, literature, and music, spanning from the 1890s to 1918, coinciding with the core of his brief life as an artist.
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