Helena Modrzejewska had to leave the country to earn her fame. She earned it not only through relentless artistic work but also, surprisingly, through physical work. One still only wonders why it is in California that there is the only monument to this outstanding Polish woman?

Helena Modrzejewska in Anaheim
California's Anaheim is widely known for the world's first and most famous Disneyland, which also attracts visitors from Poland here. Anaheim is also home to sites and memorabilia associated with one of Poland's most prominent actresses, Helena Modrzejewska (1840-1909), although known in the USA as Modjeska. And so is the name of one of the local parks, part of Santiago Canyon, or the northern summit of Saddleback Mountain.

Modjeska has also been dedicated to the oldest artefact in the public space of not only this town of 300,000 people, but of all of Orange County. To get to it, you have to go three and a half kilometres north from Disneyland and reach Pearson Park.

Sculpture of Helena Modrzejewska in California
In Pearson Park, on 15 September 1935, a unique monument, endowed with historical and symbolic connotations, was erected, which we classify as a Polonica. Made of so-called artificial stone, it consists of four elements, two structural and two representational. The circular, stepped and asymmetrical pedestal forms the base for an open niche, which to contemporaries might bring to mind a capsule. Inside it, the main sculpture - a life-size female figure - is located. On the convex back wall of the niche-capsule, there are large reliefs depicting four figures, alternately male and female, with blades at their feet.

The whole brings to mind the art movement collectively referred to as art déco, but the way the figures are depicted also reveals cubist inspirations. For the Polish viewer, associations with the sculptural setting of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, which is almost 20 years younger, are also unintentional. The figures in the relief, in particular, could be placed in the niches of the Warsaw edifice. Undoubtedly artistically intriguing, the Anaheim monument draws our attention most strongly to the narrative inscribed into it.

The main sculpture is depicted in a modern robe with an orifice around the neck, characteristic of English monarchs, while the figures in the relief are dressed simply, but in a modern way, in garments still worn today by gardeners, among others. Why this disproportion? Our astonishment will increase if we take a few steps away and look at the object from a wider perspective. We will also notice the vegetation surrounding the monument, which undoubtedly did not appear there by accident. The English queen against a backdrop of palm trees? What is this all about?

Eugen Maier-Krieg - creator of the Helena Modrzejewska monument
The riddle does not have to wait long for a solution. As we read on one of the three plaques placed on the pedestal in 2002, the main character of the monument is 'Helena Modjeska', depicted as 'Mary, Queen of Scots'. We also learn that the California public viewed her as "a famous dramatic actress, Polish patriot, pioneer, settler of Orange County". Below, we also read that "Madame Helena Modjeska founded an art colony in Anaheim in 1876" and learn about the characters in relief. They are "four vintners, symbolising the agricultural nature of Anaheim's first communities".

The author of the entire monument, but in a cruder version without the three metal plaques, was Eugen Maier-Krieg. Born and educated in Germany, he initially identified with avant-garde currents in art, including Cubism. When he came to America, big business recognised his talent and sculpting became a side activity for him. He mainly created for Hollywood, e.g. in the film Ben-Hur (1959) we can admire his set design, but he also decorated private homes in the art déco style.

The Pearson Park memorial seems to have been a project where Maier-Krieg was able to let his imagination run free, and although the result is not an impressive work, it undoubtedly has great artistic value. And this is exactly the kind of commemoration that Helena Modjeska, known by the Anglo-Saxons as Helena Modjeska, deserved.

Helena Modrzejewska in America
And here the question arises, how did the most outstanding of Polish dramatic actresses end up in America? The story of this journey has been the subject of several books, including novels as well as journalistic and scholarly texts; it is significant that a large part of them were published in America. In Poland, much more has been said about the fate of Henryk Sienkiewicz, who was also a member of the 'Modjeska colony'.


In the mid-19th century, the fame of cheap, fertile and gold-bearing land spread and millions of people headed for the American West Coast. They were driven not only by economic motives, but also by a desire to establish communes and phalansters, or to fulfil artistic needs. The reality, however, proved far from utopian.

Also planning to travel to California were: Henryk Sienkiewicz, Helena Modrzejewska with her husband, Karol Chłapowski, Juliusz Sypniewski, Albert Chmielowski, Ignacy Maciejowski-Sewer and Stanisław Witkiewicz. They all wanted to leave petty-bourgeois and enslaved Warsaw. On the other hand, their senses were ignited by the vision of a self-sufficient commune in which, after work, they would have time to devote to art, music and literature. They certainly had different motivations, some perhaps secretive. Undoubtedly, Sienkiewicz wanted to be close to Modrzejewska, while the actress was looking for opportunities to further her artistic development. However, they wanted to buy a farm together and work the land together. To this end, they formed a group in which responsibilities were shared, funds were raised and Helena and Karol became the main sponsors. The youngest of the participants, Sienkiewicz and Sypniewski set off overseas as early as the winter of 1876 to facilitate the arrival of the rest of the group.

Helena Modrzejewska's first farm in California
. In America, it was in Anaheim that the Poles bought land and began farming. The farm, however, turned out to be a fiasco. A foreshadowing of this may have been the cruise of Chmielowski, Maciejowski-Sewer and Witkiewicz, who did not come on board.

The local conditions differed significantly from those along the Vistula, and the newcomers themselves tried to reconcile their duties in the field with their artistic activities at the same time. As a result, a story passed into legend when they decided to organise a concert, but neglected the crops, which were scorched by the Californian sun. The trouble was compounded by an atmosphere of jealousy.

In January 1877. Helena Modrzejewska left for San Francisco. She began to learn English and already on 20 August made her debut on the local theatre stage. On that day, to paraphrase Mickiewicz, Modrzejewska died and Modjeska was born, the most outstanding Shakespearean actress of America in the second half of the 19th century.

The Polish farm survived until the summer of 1878, when most of its creators returned to a country under partition.

Modrzejewska - legend during her lifetime, legend after her death
Porcelain, cosmetics, hats, jackets, but also the top of a hill, a canyon or a park was named Modjeska - after the American version of Modrzejewska's name. This is by no means a trend from decades ago, because even today in the United States we can buy Modjeska sweets or a Modjeska bicycle. This, in turn, may evoke analogies with Pierre Nora's concept of "places of memory", who regarded as such not only works of small and large architecture, but also organisations or symbolic entities, thanks to which the memory of the past, and therefore of a specific event or person, lives on and radiates to contemporaries. It is hard not to think of this when standing in Anaheim by what is probably the only (!) monument to Helena Modrzejewska in the world.

Helena Modrzejewska had to leave the country to earn her fame. She earned it not only through relentless artistic work but also, surprisingly, through physical work. One still only wonders why it is in California that there is the only monument to this outstanding Polish woman?

1935

Eugen Maier-Krieg

Andrzej Goworski, Marta Panas-Goworska