The revered Polish artist , whose works can be seen all over the world today , spent two years in Brazil in her youth among the descendants of peasant settlers from Poland. She travelled on horseback through the Polish colonies, scattered in the tropical forest, in order to teach the girls the craft of weaving. Two paintings - portraits - remain from her stay in Paraná , held in the collection of the Mallet museum.

Weaving workshops for the Polish community

Krystyna Kopczyńska (1912-2000) and Konrad Sadowski (1902-1960) arrived in Brazil at the request of the Polish government. Both were then fresh graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Krystyna studied painting, weaving, ceramics and lithography , drawing inspiration from folk culture. After defending her diploma in 1934, Professor Maciej Masłowski (1901-1976) offered her the position of assistant at the academy, but the young artist chose Brazil.

In 1937, Kopczyńska arrived in the state of Parana , in the south-eastern part of the country, to organise weaving workshops for representatives of Polish emigration. She received a salary and two horses from the Polish Consulate, on which she was able to travel along narrow picadoes (forest paths) linking Polish immigrant colonies several or more kilometres apart. Among the young female emigrants , she formed a group of weavers working on 60 looms.

During her stay in Brazil, Krystyna Kopczyńska received her first major award - a medal at an exhibition in Paris for a tapestry entitled Vegetations , which she exhibited jointly with the Warsaw Artists' Cooperative Ład. Among the exile in Brazil, her work was noticed and appreciated. The weekly "Lud" (1 March 1938) reported on an exhibition held in the Cruz Machado colony (Paraná), where 40 female weavers presented over 400 linen products, including kilims, towels, shawls and artistic textiles. The exhibition was opened by state governor Manuel Ribas (1873-1946): "P. Interventor [the governor], as well as all the visitors to the exhibition, were delighted with the linen products [...]. The course is run by Mrs Halina Kopczyńska [name changed - author's note], an artist-painter who has won something like 15 prizes for her works, and recently at an exhibition in Paris a gold medal for textiles.".

The state authorities were very impressed by the products of the immigrant women weavers. After the exhibition, the governor issued a decree that exempted the linen industry from taxes. This encouraged the colonists to grow flax , especially in the Cruz Machado and Araucária area. Shortly afterwards, a French company opened a large factory for linen products , which produced linen cloth, clothes, towels, capes and carpets, among other products. A month after the exhibition in Cruz Machado, the products were shown to a wider public, this time in Curitiba itself. The editors of the magazine "Lud" once again addressed praise to the young Polish instructor : "The exhibits on display are made under the direction of Mrs Helena Kopczyńska [name changed - author's note], a specialist in folk art. There are beautiful wallpapers, kilims, jumpers, towels, etc. deserving close attention and recognition for Polish folk art.".

As a token of appreciation, the government of the Republic of Poland awarded Krystyna Kopczyńska a gold medal for her work in producing tapestries . The artist was also involved in work for the Polish Consulate in Curitiba . This, however, did not please the Brazilian authorities , who - after the entry into force of the so-called Nationalisation Decrees of President Getúlio Vargas (under which ethnic organisations and the use of languages other than Portuguese were banned) - banned all cultural and political activities for immigrants . Kopczynska was taken into custody for several days . She was released after the intervention of the Polish Consulate.

While still in Brazil, Krystyna Kopczyńska married Konrad Sadowski. Shortly afterwards, the young couple returned to Poland.

Portraits in the collection of Casa da Memória (Polish Immigration Memorial House)

An unusual memento of Krystyna Kopczyńska' s stay in Paraná are two oil portraits by her brush . They are now part of the collection of the small museum Casa da Memória (Polish Immigration Memorial House) , created in the former seat of the most famous Polish secondary school in Brazil - the Nicolaus Copernicus College in Mallet. The portraits presented at the exhibition show the same man . This is probably the artist's husband, Konrad Sadowski , who taught physics to the children of Polish emigrants in Paraná. Both portraits had already been painted in London, where the artistic couple arrived in 1940 and lived here for seven years.

The portrait, framed in a wooden frame (56×45 cm), depicts a middle-aged man, wearing a shirt and tie and a jacket with a flower in its lapel, and is framed en face (frontally). The model looks ahead with an absent-minded gaze, wrinkles his eyebrows and holds a pipe in the fingers of his right hand. The portrait is signed in the lower right corner 'K. KOPCZYŃSKA-SADOWSKA / 1942'.

The next portrait is characterised by an equally simple composition. It, too, depicts an en face bust of a man wearing a green jacket (uniform?) and shirt with a tie. The portrayed man rests his head on his right hand and looks towards the viewer with a gentle smile. The oil portrait (measuring 33×26 cm) has no frame, but is signed in the lower right corner: "K. SADOWSKA / London 1941".

The emigration wanderings of the Sadowski couple

After returning to their homeland in 1939, the Sadowskis organised - on behalf of the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment - ceramics workshops in the Stanislawow region . Their social work was interrupted by the outbreak of war. After the defeat of the September campaign Krystyna and Konrad went to Paris, where many artists and acquaintances were already staying. Krystyna took up art studies at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière . After the fall of France, the couple went to Algeria and then, in September 1940, to London , where Konrad Sadowski became an RAF pilot. While in the UK, they organised exhibitions commissioned by the Polish government-in-exile. After the war, they both studied pottery at the Central School of Arts and Crafts.

In 1947, there was an exhibition of paintings by Krystyna Sadowska at the St. George Gallery in London.

From Brazil to Canada

In 1947 , the artist couple emigrated again to Brazil, where they set up a weaving and pottery studio . Their work, inspired by the country's exoticism, was exhibited in the gallery of the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Public Health in Rio de Janeiro. In the same year, the Brazilian government awarded the artist's tapestries a silver medal at the 52nd National Exhibition of Fine Arts . The tapestry, entitled 'Dream of Canada', caught the attention of a Canadian government delegation. The young couple received an offer to work for the Nova Scotia provincial government.

In 1949, the Sadowskis left Brazil , this time permanently. They settled in Toronto , taught at the Ontario College of Art and exhibited their work. The Polish weekly "Związkowiec" in 1950, in a review of the Art Industry Exhibition in Montreal, reported: "Krystyna Kopczyńska-Sadowska and Konrad Jagmin-Sadowski, known for their exhibition at the Morgan Gallery, exhibit a rich collection of ceramics and textiles.".

In 1960, Konrad Sadowski died. After her husband's death, Krystyna left the College and began working independently. That same year, she had an original exhibition of art textiles and batiks (a painting technique that involves applying wax and bathing the fabric in dye, which only dyes the areas not covered by the wax layer) in Toronto. The exhibition was very well received by critics.

Kopczyńska-Sadowska continued her artistic path, exhibiting her works all over the world , also in Poland. She created tapestries, batiks and metal sculptures . In 1977, her first retrospective exhibition took place at the Art Gallery of Windsor. In Canada, Sadowska met her second husband Stefan Siwiński, a designer and furniture maker.

Krystyna Sadowska's works are now in public and private collections all over the world, and decorate many public places in Canada. Sadowska has received numerous honours and awards for her work , including the emigrant Jurzykowski Foundation.