In the catalogue of polonics you will also find a shorter text about the Munich School - find out the most important facts

Munich as the artistic centre of Europe

In the second half of the 19th century, Munich became one of Europe's most important artistic centres. Known for its rich cultural heritage and Baroque architecture, the city began to attract young artists from across the continent, offering both an inspiring artistic environment and excellent educational facilities. The Academy of Fine Arts Munich (Akademie der Bildenden Künste München), whose reputation extended far beyond Germany's borders, played a key role in this process.

Particularly active from the 1840s onwards, the academy offered a solid, classical art education with an emphasis on technique, drawing, composition and figurative painting. At the same time, it showed openness to new trends and formal explorations. Among the lecturers were eminent artists and educators such as Karl von Piloty, Wilhelm von Diez and Alexander von Wagner, who shaped successive generations of painters, sculptors and printmakers. The Munich School was renowned for its technical rigour, precision and the narrative nature of many of its works, which often referred to history, mythology or genre scenes.

However, Munich was more than just an academic centre. In this city, art was an integral part of public and social life. It was home to numerous galleries, art associations, publishing houses and art promotion institutions - among them Munich's Kunstverein and the monumental Glaspalast, which regularly hosted large group exhibitions. The city offered artists the opportunity to interact with art collectors, critics and patrons, as well as space for creative experimentation.

A characteristic feature of Munich's art community was its internationality. Young artists came here from Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, Russia, the Balkan countries or North America. Munich, although embedded in a German cultural context, was becoming increasingly cosmopolitan, which encouraged the exchange of ideas and stylistic influences. In an atmosphere of creative freedom and intense artistic life, a variety of trends developed - from Realism, Naturalism and Symbolism to the first manifestations of Art Nouveau.

The commercial side of art was also an important aspect of the Munich milieu. Thanks to the high level of workmanship and the attractiveness of the subject matter, the works created in this centre were in great demand not only in Europe, but also in the United States. Many artists were successful on the art market and their works found their way into prestigious private and museum collections.

Munich's golden age as an art capital was from the mid-19th century until the outbreak of the First World War. After 1914, the city's role as a major artistic centre began to decline in favour of Berlin or Vienna, and the political events of the 1930s brought a final end to its former glory. Nevertheless, the legacy of Munich's art school remains an important part of European art history. It was here, in the heart of Bavaria, that the generation of artists who decided the face of painting at the end of the nineteenth century was formed, and the very model of artistic training and organisation of creative life was a model for other European centres of culture.

Beginnings of the Polish presence in Munich

The first Polish artists appeared in Munich as early as the 1830s and 1840s. In 1828, the sculptor Karol Ceptowski from Poznań studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Königliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste), and in the following years he was joined by the first painters, including Jan Baniewicz and Aleksander Lesser. The early presence of artists from the Polish lands was still scattered and individual in nature. This situation changed in the middle of the century, especially after the defeats of the November (1830-1831) and January (1863-1864) uprisings, which contributed to an increase in political and educational emigration. Many young artists did not see the possibility of free artistic development for themselves in the country under the Partitions and went to study abroad, seeking both artistic freedom and European models of education. Munich, a city with a rich artistic life, growing international importance and an open, cosmopolitan environment, became one of the most popular destinations.

Munich's attractiveness was influenced not only by the prestige of the Academy itself, but also by the dynamic growth of art institutions such as the Kunstverein (Munich Fine Arts Society), numerous private galleries and newly established museums, including the New Pinakothek and the Schack Gallery. Munich, then one of the leading art trade centres in Europe, also offered favourable living conditions, a favourable climate and, importantly, a friendly attitude of the inhabitants towards foreigners. Poles here not only gained opportunities for study, but also a real chance to develop their careers.

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, regarded as one of the most important art academies on the continent, was renowned for its excellent technical skills and rigorous curriculum. In the mid-19th century, its teachers included Karl von Piloty, Wilhelm von Diez and Franz Adam - outstanding representatives of historical and realistic painting. Polish students, often already trained in Warsaw or Krakow, came under their tutelage and soon began to gain recognition. It is worth mentioning that Józef Brandt, one of the most eminent representatives of the Munich school, ran his own atelier in Munich already three years after starting his studies, and was appointed honorary professor of the academy in 1878.

Until 1862, Poles constituted a small group - up to a few students per year - but from 1863 onwards, following the closure of the Warsaw School of Fine Arts, their numbers began to increase rapidly. In the following decades, and especially from the 1870s onwards, Polish artists began to form the largest national group among foreigners studying in Munich. German literature of the time even began to use the term 'Polenkolonie' (Polish colony), which emphasised the organised and influential presence of artists from Polish lands in Munich's artistic life. By 1914, more than 300 Poles were students at the academy and more than 150 belonged to the Münchner Kunstverein, participating in its exhibitions, lotteries and art promotion activities. This membership facilitated their entry into the art market and the building of professional networks.

It should be noted that the activities of Poles in Munich were not limited to education. Many of them ran their own studios and private painting schools, took part in group and individual exhibitions, cooperated with German collectors and art dealers, and illustrated books and magazines. A significant number of artists - such as Józef Brandt, Władysław Czachórski, Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski, Maksymilian Gierymski, Jan Bagumił Rosen - became permanently attached to Munich, treating it as the main space of their professional and private lives. Others, such as Józef Chełmoński and Wojciech Kossak, spent key years of their education and careers here, after which they returned to Poland, bringing with them the intellectual and technical achievements they had brought with them from Bavaria.

Despite living in exile, most of the Munich artists cultivated a strong national consciousness and maintained intensive contacts with their country - through exhibitions, correspondence, travel and participation in national artistic debates. Their works - often with historical, genre and landscape themes - were testimony to a culture that continued its mission through art under the conditions of partition.

The milieu thus formed - lively, diverse and mutually supportive - became the foundation for the phenomenon now known as the Polish Munich School. It was not a school in the formal sense, but rather a community of experience, academic formation, aesthetic sensibility and social network that shaped an important part of modern Polish painting. Artists originating from Munich co-founded artistic institutions in the country, educated new generations of artists and brought European quality and a universal dimension to Polish art. Today, their legacy, preserved in images, documents and cultural memory, remains one of the most important chapters in the history of Poland's presence in 19th century European art.

Karol Ceptowski - first Pole at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich

The arrival of Karol Ceptowski, a sculptor from Poznań, who had already begun his studies there in 1828, is considered the symbolic beginning of the Polish presence at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. His stay was a one-off and did not yet initiate an organised trend of artistic migration. Ceptowski was an exception at the time - a representative of a generation for whom going abroad was an exception rather than a common practice. His work did not bring him lasting fame, but his significance lies primarily in opening the way for future generations of Polish artists, who began to choose Munich in large numbers as a place of study and development.

The real wave of Polish students did not appear until the second half of the 19th century, especially from the 1860s and 1870s, when the Munich academy was at its most flourishing. At the time, the city was becoming one of the most important artistic centres in Europe, attracting young art students not only with its high standard of teaching, but also with its developed artistic life and relatively low cost of living. For many Poles, deprived of access to modern artistic education at home, Munich was a natural choice.

Among those who not only studied, but also remained in Munich permanently, a special place is occupied by Józef Brandt, an outstanding painter of battle and genre scenes, who in time became the informal leader of the Polish artistic colony in the city. Brandt not only created his own works, but also ran a master studio, which later became an important point of reference for subsequent generations of Polish artists. Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz, Józef Chełmoński and Wacław Pawliszak, among others, were educated in his environment.

However, he was not the only mentor for his younger colleagues. Stanisław Grocholski and Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski, also successful in Germany and internationally, ran private painting schools in Munich as an alternative or supplement to academic study. They formed a lively and diverse artistic network, thanks to which Munich became a veritable hinterland of modern Polish painting.

Ignacy Korwin-Milewski, an aristocrat, collector and patron of the arts, was also an important figure in this milieu. It was thanks to his efforts that one of the most valuable collections of Polish painting of the second half of the 19th century was created, comprising works by almost all leading representatives of the Polish Munich School. Milewski not only supported artists financially, but also created an atmosphere conducive to their work, meetings and the exchange of ideas.

At its peak, the Polish artistic colony in Munich was one of the most numerous national groups among the foreigners associated with the academy. It is estimated that between 1836 and 1914 some 650 Polish artists passed through Munich, of whom more than 300 registered as students at the academy. Alongside formal studies, social and café life was extremely important - the centre of meetings was the popular Café Tambosi, a place for artistic debates, social gatherings, telling anecdotes and developing creative plans. In a spirit of self-deprecation and attachment to the place, the artists themselves began to refer to Munich as 'Monk' or 'Bavarian Athens'.

Munich, which in time came to serve as an informal artistic capital for many Poles, was not only a place of learning, but also a space for integration, work, the exchange of ideas and international careers. Mutual support, common roots and similar experiences strengthened the bonds between artists, creating an environment that was exceptionally strong and permanently present in the history of Polish art at the turn of the 20th century.

Leading representatives of the Polish Munich milieu

Among the artists associated with this milieu, the following deserve special mention: Józef Brandt, Maksymilian Gierymski, Wojciech Kossak, Władysław Czachórski, Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski and Roman Kochanowski. Their oeuvre, although thematically and stylistically diverse, was usually characterised by academic technical precision, a commitment to realistic depiction of reality, careful composition and attention to chiaroscuro. In their paintings one can find historical battle scenes as well as atmospheric landscapes, genre representations or episodes from borderland, rural and noble life.

Józef Brandt - leader of the Munich artistic colony

Józef Brandt (1841-1915) is undoubtedly one of the most important figures of the Polish Munich School and one of the most outstanding painters of the second half of the 19th century. Although he initially prepared for a career as an engineer, he eventually abandoned the sciences in favour of art and by the 1860s had already become permanently associated with Munich. It was there, at the centre of Bavarian artistic life, that he developed his talent, achieved international success and created his own recognisable artistic brand.

Brandt gained fame as the author of historical and genre compositions whose subject matter was deeply rooted in the realities of 17th-century Poland. Battle scenes, Cossack skirmishes, army marches, fairs and episodes from the life of the Ukrainian borderlands - these were recurring motifs in his work and became its hallmark. Brandt uniquely combined patriotic inspiration with an attractive painting form, giving his depictions extraordinary dynamism, precision of detail and narrative power. His paintings are full of movement, tension, dramatic gestures and evocative group scenes.

In Munich, Brandt not only created, but also actively shaped the artistic community. His studio on Schwanthalerstraße soon became one of the most important centres of Polish artistic life in the city. Brandt attracted young painters, gave them advice, shared his experience and often helped them materially. In time, his studio took on the function of a kind of master school, where artists such as Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz, Wacław Pawliszak and Józef Chełmoński studied and developed before going to Paris.

Brandt's authority was not limited to the artistic sphere. In Munich circles, he was regarded as a respected and influential person - it was he who often represented the interests of Poles before German artistic institutions, organised joint exhibitions and took care of the promotion of Polish art in European salons. His position was so strong that he was often referred to as the 'Munich leader' of the Polish artistic community.

Brandt was also successful internationally. His paintings were exhibited in Berlin, Vienna, Paris and St Petersburg, he won prizes and critical acclaim, and his works found their way into private and public collections throughout Europe. At the same time, despite his career as an émigré, he never severed his ties with Poland - from the late 1870s he was a regular visitor to the country, and in 1877 he purchased the palace in Orońsko, which he made his summer residence and place of work. It was there that he spent months of intensive creative work and rest, and also invited other artists.

Józef Brandt's work became a symbol of the synthesis of patriotism, perfect technique and European career. Although inscribed in the framework of the Munich School, it was at the same time an expression of an individual passion for research and an emotional connection with the tradition of the Polish Noble Republic. His activities contributed not only to the promotion of Polish art abroad, but also to the creation of a strong, integrated and creative community of artists in Munich - one of the most significant artistic colonies of Poles in the 19th century.

Maksymilian Gierymski - poetics of light and the memory of the uprising

Maksymilian Gierymski (1846-1874) was one of the most outstanding and at the same time most tragic representatives of the Polish Munich School. Died at the age of only 28, he managed to create works that became a permanent part of the history of 19th-century Polish painting. He was an artist of exceptional sensitivity - his work combined the precision of realistic representation with a deep, poetic mood and remained firmly rooted in national themes.

Like Józef Brandt, Gierymski studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, which he entered in 1867. Already during his studies he distinguished himself by his precise technique and exceptional sense of observation. Munich became for him not only a place of study, but also a space for artistic self-realisation. Although his stay in this city lasted only a few years, he became permanently associated with its environment - it was there that his most important paintings were created and where he achieved his greatest artistic success.

The themes of Gierymski's work include hunting scenes, landscapes and paintings relating to the January Uprising. Particularly the latter - such as 'Insurgent Patrol' and 'Insurgent Picket' - gained exceptional popularity as they combined documentary narrative with reflection on the tragedy of history. His approach to the theme of the national liberation struggle was devoid of pathos, characterised by melancholy and a pensive mood. Gierymski did not glorify heroism - he rather depicted moments of silence, expectation and passing, which introduced a completely new quality to historical painting.

The chiaroscuro atmosphere played an extremely important role in his paintings - the skill of handling light, mood and colour harmony made his landscapes almost meditative compositions. Shots of winter landscapes, empty fields, forests and roads at dusk or dawn appeal to the viewer through mood rather than dramatic action. The poetic quality of his painting was not the result of stylisation, but arose from a profound ability to contemplate nature and human fate.

Gierymski was successful at exhibitions in Munich, Vienna and Berlin, winning praise not only from his colleagues in the Polish colony, but also from German art critics. Despite his young age, he was regarded as one of the most talented landscape painters of his generation. Unfortunately, struggling with progressive tuberculosis, he died prematurely in 1874.

Although his career was brutally interrupted, Maximilian Gierymski managed to set a new quality in Munich painting - more lyrical, reflective, focused on nuance and atmosphere. He left behind a small but remarkably coherent and valuable oeuvre that still fascinates today with its simplicity and depth. His work is one of the purest and subtlest testimonies to the spirituality of the Munich School, and at the same time bridges the gap between a realistic representation of reality and its poetic reinterpretation.

He died of pulmonary tuberculosis on 16 September 1874 in Reichenhall (today's Bad Reichenhall) in Bavaria and was buried in the cemetery at the church of St. Zeno, where his gravestone monument has been preserved.

Wojciech Kossak - continuator of the batalistic tradition

Wojciech Kossak (1856-1942) belonged to the next generation of artists who established their artistic formation in Munich. Coming from a prominent painting family - he was the son of Juliusz Kossak, a well-known creator of historical and genre scenes - Wojciech was brought up from an early age in an artistic atmosphere, open to national tradition and the cult of noble culture. It was natural for him to study at prestigious foreign academies, and Munich - then the European capital of realist painting - was a logical choice.

Kossak began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1874 and quickly found his feet in the local environment. He drew inspiration both from the technique of his teachers and from his contacts with representatives of the Polish artistic colony. He paid particular attention to battle painting, in a way continuing the path set out earlier by Józef Brandt, but enriching it with new means of expression, narrative dynamics and a more dramatic emotional expression.

Kossak's battle compositions - depicting scenes from the Napoleonic Wars, the November Uprising, Prince Józef Poniatowski's campaign or the wars of the Partition period, among others - quickly gained popularity both in Poland and abroad. They were characterised by monumentality, evocative dramaturgy and an excellent knowledge of military realities: uniforms, weapons, formations and tactics. Like his father and Brandt, Kossak took great care to ensure the historical accuracy of the events he depicted, which made his works attractive not only artistically, but also educationally.

Wojciech Kossak - like many other Munich painters - did not limit himself to one place of residence. Although Munich played an important role in his education and early career, in later years he was also active in Paris, Vienna, Krakow and Warsaw, where he accepted numerous public and private commissions. His international activity brought him wide recognition, and the painting style he developed became one of the most recognisable in Polish art at the turn of the 20th century.

Another important aspect of Kossak's work was his involvement in monumental painting projects, such as historical panoramas, co-created with Jan Styka ('Panorama Racławicka') and Tadeusz Popiel. These works, addressed to a wide audience, had strong patriotic and popularising overtones and strengthened the collective identity in the times of the Partitions.

Although in later years Kossak's style faced criticism from the younger generation of modernists, his influence on the development of historical and battle painting in Poland was enormous. On the one hand, he represented the traditional current; on the other hand, his works played an important role in preserving historical memory, shaping the national imagination and propagating the history of the Republic in wide circles of society.

As an artist educated in Munich, Wojciech Kossak remains the symbolic heir and continuator of the tradition of the Munich School - a tradition that was based on high technical craftsmanship, a strong attachment to historical themes and a conscious cultural mission. His work, full of passion and panache, finds an important place in the history of Polish patriotic art and at the same time represents the final chord of an era in which Munich remained the main centre for the artistic formation of Polish painters.

Józef Chełmoński - poet of the Polish countryside and nature

Józef Chełmoński (1849-1914) is one of the most recognisable figures of the Polish Munich School, an artist whose work became a permanent part of the canon of national realist painting. Although his career also developed outside Munich - especially in Paris - it is the years spent in Bavaria (1872-1875) that represent an important stage in the formation of his individual style and artistic identity.

Chełmoński began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1872 and quickly gained the recognition of his lecturers and colleagues in the Polish art colony. Although he found himself in an environment strongly influenced by German academism and history painting, he remained faithful to his native subject matter - his canvases of the period are filled with scenes of Polish village life, observations of nature, horses at the gallop, farm yards and realistic depictions of the everyday life of peasants.

Chełmoński represented a different type of sensibility to his older battle painters. Instead of monumental narratives and heroic scenes, he reached for seemingly ordinary motifs, but characterised by deep feelings for his native land and the people associated with it. His works show a fascination with light, the changeability of the weather, the movement of nature and the intense experience of being in the landscape. His horses - one of his most famous motifs - were not just a showy means of expression, but a vehicle of expression, power and dynamism, inscribed in the context of Polish customs and national mythology.

Among Chełmoński's most famous works are 'Babie lato', 'Bociany', 'Partridges', 'Departure of Guests in Winter', as well as numerous studies of rural landscapes and genre scenes. These paintings, painted with great attention to detail and filled with mood and emotion, brought him international fame - especially during his stay in France, where he was highly regarded by critics and collectors as a master of realistic observation and a painterly sense of light.

An important moment in Chełmoński's career was the General National Exhibition in Lviv in 1894, at which the artist was awarded an honorary diploma. This was not only an acknowledgement of his achievements to date, but also a confirmation of the role he played in shaping the vision of Polish visual culture during the period of partition.

Although Chełmoński did not belong to a group of artists centred around a single style or programme, his presence in Munich and his contacts with the community there had a significant impact on his development. The commonality of experience with other Polish artists, confrontation with European trends and technical academic training allowed him to shape his own unique painting language - deeply rooted in a realistic representation of nature, but at the same time open to lyricism and existential reflection.

Józef Chełmoński remains one of the most authentic "poets of the brush" in the history of Polish painting, an artist who was able to subtly depict the beauty of ordinary moments, the rhythm of nature and the charm of rural life, without falling into sentimentalism. His work, although marked by the influence of the Munich school, went far beyond academic conventions, combining observation with feeling, reality with poetry.

Władysław Czachórski - elegance and artistry of salon painting

Among the artists associated with the Munich School, a special place is held by Władysław Czachórski (1850-1911), a painter whose work represents the salon painting trend - refined, technically refined and addressed to the wealthy strata of European society. Czachórski, like many of his compatriots, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he quickly gained recognition for his extraordinary technical precision and subtlety of painterly language. Unlike the creators of rural genre scenes or dramatic historical compositions, however, he focused on the elegant, refined world of the upper class and artistic imaginations.

Czachórski specialised in figural compositions of a salon character - his paintings were carefully constructed scenes, usually depicting young, beautiful women in stylish interiors, immersed in reading, reverie or music. In them, the attention was drawn not only to the beauty of the models, but also to the extraordinary attention to detail - the texture of lace, silks, satins, wood, porcelain or jewellery was rendered with almost photographic precision. Czachórski's painting is clearly influenced by 17th-century Dutch painting, especially the work of Gerard Terborch and Jan Vermeer, whose love of detail and the play of light inspired his own aesthetic explorations.

Literary themes, particularly those taken from the plays of William Shakespeare, also played an important role in his work. Paintings such as 'Ophelia' and 'Juliet' showed the heroines not only as theatrical characters, but above all as allegories of emotions and states of mind. In this way, Czachórski combined classical narrative with a modern, psychological approach to the characters.

Munich became for him not only a place of education, but also the centre of his life and artistic career. The artist remained in the city for the rest of his life, maintaining a studio, exhibiting in prestigious galleries and participating in numerous international exhibitions. His paintings were extremely successful - they were eagerly commissioned and bought by wealthy collectors from Germany, Austria-Hungary, England and Russia. Unlike many of his colleagues from the Polish art colony, Czachórski functioned in the international art circuit from the very beginning and consciously created works with a transnational, cosmopolitan character.

His commercial success brought him fame and financial stability, but he also - after his death - became the subject of criticism. The painter and publicist Eligiusz Niewiadomski accused him of a lack of spiritual depth, of conforming to the tastes of the bourgeoisie and of failing to use his full artistic potential. Opinions of this kind, formulated especially in the circles of the Young Poland avant-garde, contributed to his work being partially forgotten in the 20th century.

Today, however, Władysław Czachórski's work is experiencing a renaissance. His works fetch very high prices at art auctions, and their technical mastery, decorativeness and subtle charm are newly appreciated by both collectors and art historians. Czachórski remains one of the most prominent representatives of salon-like academism in painting, and his work is a valuable testimony to the aesthetic culture of the second half of the nineteenth century, which grew out of Munich's artistic education but was directed towards the wider world of European art.

Roman Kochanowski and his last years in Bavaria

Roman Kazimierz Kochanowski (1857-1945) was one of the outstanding landscape painters educated in the Munich circle, and his work - although less known to the general public than the works of Brandt or Chełmoński - went down in the history of Polish landscape painting. The artist, who lived and worked in Munich for most of his life, is remembered today primarily as a creator of atmospheric, quiet and melancholic landscapes depicting country roads, forest wildernesses, fields and deserted spaces in southern Germany and his native Galicia.

Kochanowski began his artistic studies in Kraków and then, like many of his peers, went to Munich, where he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. He became bound to this city for life, finding there not only an artistic environment but also inspiration and recognition. He mainly created realistic landscapes, often enriched with a reflective mood and soft light, which gave the scenes an almost poetic dimension.

Although his paintings lacked the drama and patriotic themes so readily taken up by other Polish painters associated with Munich, Kochanowski was able to convey the spirit of the place - the contemplative nature of nature and the changeability of the seasons. He paid particular attention to the light and the colouring of the sky, mists and clouds, which made his compositions subtle, almost intimate portraits of the landscape.

In addition to his easel paintings, he also worked in illustration and applied graphics, collaborating with German and Austrian publishing houses, among others. His works were reproduced in magazines and calendars, which ensured his wide popularity and a source of livelihood at a time when the sale of paintings was sometimes uncertain.

Kochanowski remained in Bavaria until the end of his life, even during the Second World War, despite the difficult conditions and old age. He died in Freising in 1945, shortly before the end of the war. He was laid to rest in the Forest Cemetery in Munich (Waldfriedhof), a necropolis unique in artistic and historical terms, where many outstanding representatives of German and Polish culture are buried. His grave is surrounded by the graves of other artists, scholars and intellectuals, a tacit testimony to his links with this city and its environment.

Although not one of the artistic leaders of the Polish Munich colony, Roman Kochanowski left behind a coherent and distinctive body of paintings, which is now being rediscovered by collectors and art historians. His works, held in the collections of the National Museum in Cracow and the Silesian Museum in Katowice, among others, show an artist who was focused, sensitive and faithful to a realist aesthetic, but at the same time separate and full of individual expression.

Late period of the Munich School

The influx of Polish art students to Munich continued uninterrupted even after 1875, but over the years the number of outstanding individuals able to compete with the masters of the earlier generation diminished. At the centre of artistic life at the time remained the undisputed leaders: Józef Brandt and Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski, who not only continued their creative activity, but also supported the young adepts of art, opening their prosperous studios to them and providing them with access to their rich collections of Polish props, textiles and costumes. Their homes, known for their hospitality and artistic splendour, became places of integration for successive generations of Polish artists.

As the academy became more open and internationalised, public schools became increasingly important, especially those run by established artists. A particular magnet for students from the Polish lands was the private school opened in 1886 by the Hungarian painter Simon Hollósy, who organised summer courses in plein air painting in Transylvania and Hungary. By 1911, some thirty Poles were attending, and their experience of working in nature complemented their academic education and introduced an element of a freer, impressionistic view of landscape and light.

In November 1887, the Munich magazine Die Kunst für Alle published a symbolic illustration - a painting palette featuring typical motifs by eight Polish artists, including Brandt and Fałat. This was a popular form of artistic group self-portrait at the time. The commentary accompanying the illustration stated that 'the harmony of the whole makes it easy to see what a common school these artists form, even if J. von Brandt's genius has left its mark, exerting a greater or lesser influence on each of them'. German critics such as Friedrich Pecht noted at the time that the Poles - despite their stylistic differences - exhibited common traits stemming from their national character and that their presence in Munich had developed into a clearly defined, distinct artistic school.

The last two decades of the 19th century brought a distinct stylistic transformation in Munich. Alongside Realist and academic painting, new trends inspired by French Impressionism, Art Nouveau and the English applied arts movement were increasingly present. Munich became one of the centres of Jugendstil, especially after the founding of the magazine Jugend in 1896, which promoted modern graphic, illustrative and design forms. Polish artists - including Stanisław Grocholski, Wacław Szymanowski, Edward Okuń, Feliks Wygrzywalski, Otolia Kraszewska and Olga Boznańska - actively participated in this trend, exhibiting their work as part of the Münchener Secession, illustrating articles in 'Jugend' and developing new forms of visual expression. Their work balanced between academic rigour and Art Nouveau line, colour and symbolism.

The school of Anton Ažbe, a Slovenian painter and pedagogue whose studio was a meeting place for artists of different nationalities, was also very popular at this time. Some thirty Poles were among his pupils, and his best-known students included the future classics of Russian painting and the European avant-garde: Alexei Yavlensky and Vassily Kandinsky. Ažbe taught a modern approach to colour, composition and the construction of the human body - his school was known for its liberal atmosphere and experimental teaching methods, which attracted many young artists disillusioned with the formalism of the academy.

The year 1897 also saw the publication of the famous 'Monachijska Jednodówka', a magazine created by a group of Polish artists working in Munich, styled after French and German art magazines such as 'Jugend' and 'Gil Blas Illustré'. It contained illustrations, reproductions of paintings, poems and prose by Polish émigré artists, including Olga Boznańska, Władysław Czachórski, Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski, Aleksander Gierymski and Władysław Wanke. This was a one-off but significant initiative, testifying to a strong community identity and the need to affirm the presence of Polish artists in the artistic life of Munich.

Between 1890 and 1914, the Munich Academy continued to admit Polish students, with 125 enrolled during this period, of whom as many as 45 enrolled after 1900. According to Halina Stępień and Maria Liczbińska, a total of 322 Poles undertook official studies in Munich between 1828 and 1914, not counting those who studied at public schools, worked locally without formal academic education or were affiliated with the Kunstverein. If one counts all the artists - painters, sculptors and architects - whose presence has been documented, the number of Poles who passed through Munich's artistic community reaches around 700.

At the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, new artistic currents associated with Expressionism, Symbolism, applied art and the avant-garde were becoming increasingly prominent in Munich. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the presence of the Polish Munich school came to a definitive end - young artists increasingly turned their attention to Paris, Berlin or their native Krakow and Warsaw. The era of the Polish artistic colony in Munich came to an end, leaving behind a rich legacy in the form of hundreds of paintings, illustrations, drawings and documents - as well as the memory of an international milieu that had shaped the face of modern Polish art for almost a century.

An exceptional testimony to the presence of Polish painters in Munich are Carl Teufel's photographs from the end of the 19th century. He documented the interiors of the studios of nine Polish artists, including Brandt, Czachórski, Wierusz-Kowalski and Rosen. Today, these photographs are stored at the Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte - Bildarchiv Foto Marburg and are a priceless iconographic source.

Themes and styles of Munich paintings

One of the most recognisable themes among Polish artists was historical and especially battle painting. Artists such as Józef Brandt, Wojciech Kossak or Antoni Piotrowski created compositions depicting battles, skirmishes, marches of armies and scenes involving Cossacks, confederates or noblemen. These paintings were characterised by a strong narrative charge, drama and attention to historical realities. Paintings of this type satisfied the patriotic needs of audiences during the Partitions, while offering spectacular representations full of movement and expression. Another important trend was genre scenes, inspired by the everyday life of villages and small towns. Chełmoński, Wierusz-Kowalski, Grocholski and Witkiewicz drew on motifs of fairs, hunting, farm work and peasant life. Their paintings featured both dynamic and colourful moments, as well as quiet and concentrated scenes showing people in natural, unembellished surroundings. Alongside these themes, landscape played an important role - treated not as a background but as an autonomous painting motif. Artists such as Maksymilian and Aleksander Gierymski, Roman Kochanowski or Józef Szermentowski depicted Polish and Bavarian nature in a moody and reflective manner, focusing on the changing seasons, light and the mood of the moment.

Salon scenes and portraits - particularly popular in the work of Władysław Czachórski or Kazimierz Pochwalski - were also characteristic subjects. They depicted elegant interiors, beautiful women immersed in reading or music, and motifs taken from classical literature, especially Shakespeare's dramas. These decorative paintings attracted attention with their masterful rendering of detail, attention to fabrics, props and the play of light.

The style of the Munich painters was largely influenced by the academic model of teaching, which emphasised precise drawing, composition, perspective, handling of light and realistic rendering of reality. Realism here was not only an aesthetic statement but also a workshop practice - artists were taught to observe nature carefully and translate it consistently into the language of painting. A characteristic feature of their style was the ability to operate with chiaroscuro, to build the atmosphere of a painting through subtle colour transitions and nuanced colouring. Although the colour palette was generally subdued, it perfectly conveyed the aura of the scenes depicted - from winter dawn to summer dusk.

The Munich painters were also distinguished by their extraordinary attention to detail. In their paintings, every element - from the texture of the cloth to the ornaments of the jewellery to the reflections of light on the porcelain - had its place and was precisely painted. In this respect, one can see the inspiration of 17th-century Dutch painting, especially in the work of Czachórski, who directly referred to masters such as Gerard Terborch. Despite these common features, the style of the Munich School was not homogeneous; on the contrary, it accommodated a variety of individualities: from the narrative momentum of Brandt, through the poetic silence of Gierymski, to the salon-like splendour of Czachórski.

All these elements - technical excellence, richness of subject matter, emotionality and attention to detail - made the paintings of the Polish Munich painters an important part of the artistic heritage of the era. Their works were featured in prestigious exhibitions in Munich, Vienna, Berlin and Paris, were popular with collectors and played an important role in shaping the artistic taste of Polish society at the turn of the 20th century. Although many of these artists faced accusations of academicism or commercialism during the modernist period, today their output is regarded as a valuable and representative example of art that successfully combined high technical skill with national identity and European class. The paintings of the Munich painters - so deeply rooted in reality and yet open to metaphor and moodiness - still appeal to the contemporary viewer, and are testimony to an era in which art was both a record of history and a form of emotional contact with reality.

The Munich School as a source of national identity

The Polish Munich School, although it never functioned as a formalised artistic grouping, developed a set of common features which allow us to speak of it as an important phenomenon in the history of Polish art of the 19th century. Within this formation, one can find both a diversity of individual creative attitudes and certain distinct thematic and stylistic features, resulting from the Munich model of education, contact with European artistic tendencies and the specific cultural experience of Polish artists working in a foreign country. The subject matter of the works of Munich painters was extremely rich, but several clearly dominant trends can be distinguished.

One of the most recognisable was historical painting, particularly battle paintings. Artists such as Józef Brandt, Wojciech Kossak or Antoni Piotrowski created compositions depicting battles, skirmishes, marches of troops and scenes involving Cossacks, confederates or noblemen. These paintings were characterised by a strong narrative charge, drama and attention to historical realities. Paintings of this type satisfied the patriotic needs of audiences during the Partitions, while offering spectacular representations full of movement and expression. Another important trend was genre scenes, inspired by the everyday life of villages and small towns. Chełmoński, Wierusz-Kowalski, Grocholski and Witkiewicz drew on motifs of fairs, hunting, farm work and peasant life. Their paintings featured both dynamic and colourful moments, as well as quiet and concentrated scenes that showed people in natural, unembellished surroundings. Alongside these themes, landscape played an important role - treated not as a background but as an autonomous painting motif. Artists such as Maksymilian and Aleksander Gierymski, Roman Kochanowski or Józef Szermentowski depicted Polish and Bavarian nature in a moody and reflective manner, focusing on the changeability of seasons, light and the mood of the moment.

Salon scenes and portraits - particularly popular in the work of Władysław Czachórski or Kazimierz Pochwalski - were also characteristic subjects. They depicted elegant interiors, beautiful women immersed in reading or music, and motifs taken from classical literature, especially Shakespeare's dramas. These decorative paintings attracted attention with their masterful rendering of detail, attention to fabrics, props and the play of light.

The style of the Munich painters was largely influenced by the academic model of teaching, which emphasised precise drawing, composition, perspective, handling of light and realistic rendering of reality. Realism here was not only an aesthetic statement but also a workshop practice - artists were taught to observe nature carefully and translate it consistently into the language of painting. A characteristic feature of their style was the ability to operate with chiaroscuro, to build the atmosphere of a painting through subtle colour transitions and nuanced colouring. Although the colour palette was generally subdued, it perfectly conveyed the aura of the scenes depicted - from winter dawn to summer dusk.

The Munich painters were also distinguished by their extraordinary attention to detail. In their paintings, every element - from the texture of the cloth to the ornaments of the jewellery to the reflections of light on the porcelain - had its place and was precisely painted. In this respect, one can see the inspiration of 17th-century Dutch painting, especially in the work of Czachórski, who directly referred to masters such as Gerard Terborch. Despite these common features, the style of the Munich School was not homogeneous - on the contrary, it accommodated a variety of individualities: from the narrative momentum of Brandt, through the poetic quietude of Gierymski, to the salon-like splendour of Czachórski.

All these elements - technical excellence, richness of subject matter, emotionality and attention to detail - made the paintings of the Polish Munich painters an important part of the artistic heritage of the era. Their works were featured in prestigious exhibitions in Munich, Vienna, Berlin and Paris, were popular with collectors and played an important role in shaping the artistic taste of Polish society at the turn of the 20th century. Although many of these artists faced accusations of academicism or commercialism during the modernist period, today their output is regarded as a valuable and representative example of art that successfully combined high technical skill with national identity and European class. The paintings of the Munich painters - so deeply rooted in reality and yet open to metaphor and moodiness - still appeal to the contemporary viewer, and are testimony to an era in which art was both a record of history and a form of emotional contact with reality.

Heritage in museum collections and cultural memory

The legacy of the Polish Munich School does not end with the works stored in museums in Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan or Lviv. Many traces of the activity of the artists of this milieu have survived beyond Poland's borders, especially in Germany, where for decades these artists created, exhibited their works, educated young art students and organised artistic life. Today, numerous paintings, drawings, prints, documents and memorabilia associated with the Munich artists can be found in museum collections and archives in Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Kiel, Biberach, Potsdam, as well as Marburg and Bad Reichenhall.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig houses one of Jozef Brandt's later works, The Hunting Tour (1883), depicting horsemen in a dynamic composition full of movement and emotion. The Braith-Mali-Museum in Biberach an der Riß, on the other hand, has several of Brandt's valuable canvases, including the early 'In the pasture' (1869), the genre scene 'Before the inn. The lancers in the Polish countryside' and the expressive 'Cossack on guard' from 1878. These works are not only a document of the artist's style, but also testimony to the great interest in borderland subjects among German collectors.

Berlin's Kupferstichkabinett, part of the State Museums in Berlin, holds Brandt's drawings and watercolours such as: "Tartar overcoming a river", "Polish rider and horse in front of a customs chamber" (1877) and "Polish wagons on the highway". These works, executed in drawing and mixed techniques, demonstrate the artist's excellent technique and his interest in borderland scenes, full of tension, encounters between cultures and differences.

In Dresden, in the collection of the Galerie Neue Meister (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden), there is 'The Looters by the River' ('Der Beutezug am Fluss', 1874), a monumental robbery scene by Brandt - a work that is part of the European current of history-narrative painting. Munich, the centre of this artistic community, has preserved several outstanding paintings in the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, such as 'Polish Peasant Harnessing', also known as 'Jews Going to the Fair' (1865), 'Cossacks Asking the Way' (1874) and 'Study of Marysieńka's Departure' (c. 1897).

The Kunsthalle zu Kiel houses a unique painting by Maksymilian Gierymski - 'Hunting par force for a deer' from 1874. This large-format canvas (96.5 x 192 cm), signed 'Roma', depicts a dynamic hunting scene and is among Gierymski's most important works stored outside Poland.

The memory of the Munich artist is also preserved through his burial sites. The Forest Cemetery (Waldfriedhof) in Munich is the resting place of, among others, Roman Kochanowski, an outstanding landscape painter who worked in Bavaria for most of his life. Maximilian Gierymski's tomb is located in the small cemetery next to St. Zeno's Church in Bad Reichenhall - it was there that he died in 1874, having not lived to see his return to his homeland.

One of the most valuable testimonies to the everyday life of Polish artists in Munich are the photographs of the studios taken by Carl Teufl after 1889, now stored in the Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte - Bildarchiv Foto Marburg. The photographs capture, among others, Józef Brandt, Władysław Czachórski, Jan Bogumił Rosen, Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski, Zdzisław Suchodolski, Franciszek Streitt and Antoni Kozakiewicz - in their studios, surrounded by easels, props, pupils and models. This is a unique documentation not only of the artistic workshop, but also of the atmosphere of the environment - full of intense work, exchange of ideas and the everyday presence of art.

The works, documents and material traces of the Munich artists' presence in Germany today constitute an important part of the Polish-German cultural heritage. Their presence reminds us of a time when art was not only a form of aesthetic expression, but also a tool for building identity, intercultural dialogue and the emotional persistence of Polishness under the conditions of partition reality. The paintings of the Munich School - today held in museums in Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Dresden, Potsdam or Kiel - are therefore not just an object of art collections, but a lasting testimony to a culture that united Central Europe and transcended national, linguistic and political boundaries. Its heritage remains alive both in the halls of the museum and in the cultural memory of contemporary Europe.

Object catalogue
1. Leipzig
Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig
"Hunting trip" - Josef Brandt, 1883, oil on canvas

2. Biberach an der Riß
Braith-Mali-Museum (Museum Biberach)
"In the pasture" - Jozef Brandt, 1869, oil on canvas
"In front of an inn. Uhlans in a Polish village" - Józef Brandt, no date, oil on board
"Cossack on guard" - Józef Brandt, 1878, oil on canvas

3. Berlin
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
"Tartar overcoming a river" - Józef Brandt, no date, pen drawing, lavish
"Polish rider and horse in front of a customs house" - Józef Brandt, 1877, watercolour and gouache on paper
"Polish wagons on the road" - Józef Brandt, no date, watercolour and gouache on paper

4. Dresden
Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
"Scavengers by the River" ("Der Beutezug am Fluss") - Josef Brandt, 1874, oil on canvas

5. Munich
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau
"Polish peasant carriages" ("Jews going to the fair") - Jozef Brandt, 1865, oil on canvas
"Cossacks asking for directions" - Jozef Brandt, 1874, oil on canvas
"Study of Marysieńka's Departure" - Józef Brandt, ca. 1897, oil on board
Forest Cemetery (Waldfriedhof), Munich

6. Kiel
Kunsthalle zu Kiel
"Deer hunting par force" ("Hirschjagd") - Maximilian Gierymski, 1874, oil on canvas
Size: 96.5 x 192 cm
Inv. No.: 903
Signature: M. Gierymski Roma 1874
Owner: Kulturstiftung des Landes Schleswig-Holstein

7. Bad Reichenhall
Cemetery at St. Zeno Church
Tombstone of Maximilian Gierymski - after 1874

8. Potsdam
Potsdam Museum - Forum für Kunst und Geschichte
"Battle of Zorndorf" - Wojciech Kossak, 1899, oil on canvas

9. Marburg
Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte - Bildarchiv Foto Marburg
Photographs of the studio of Polish painters in Munich - Carl Teufel, after 1889
Artists depicted:
Józef Brandt, Szymon Buchbinder, Władysław Czachórski, Franciszek Ejsmond, Antoni Kozakiewicz, Jan Bogumił Rosen, Franciszek Streit, Zdzisław Suchodolski, Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski

10th Savannah

Telfair Academy Museum in Savannah

"Ein Gefecht" - Jozef Brandt, 1888, oil on canvas

11 Bucharest

Muzeului Colecțiilor de Artă, Bucharest

"Tartars pursued by the Polish cavalry" - Józef Brandt

12. Liberc

Regionala Galeria Lázně

"Shabbat on the Vistula" - Maximilian Gierymski, 1871, oil on canvas - see more

Artists associated with the Munich School

Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz (1852-1916)

Witold Ajdukiewicz (1876-1913)

Aleksander Augustynowicz (1865-1944)

Teodor Axentowicz (1859-1938)

Jan Baniewicz (1803-1881)

Józef Brandt (1841-1915)

Olga Boznańska (1865-1940)

Szymon Buchbinder (1853-1908)

Adam Chmielowski (St. Brother Albert) (1845-1916)

Józef Chełmoński (1849-1914)

Jan Chełmiński (1851-1925)

Karol Ceptowski (1801-1847)

Florian Cynk (1838-1912)

Władysław Czachórski (1850-1911)

Walery Eljasz-Radzikowski (1841-1905)

Franciszek Teodor Ejsmond (1859-1931)

Julian Fałat (1853-1929)

Aleksander Gierymski (1850-1901)

Maksymilian Gierymski (1846-1874)

Jan Nepomucen Głowacki (1802-1847)

Michał Gorstkin-Wywiórski (1861-1926)

Stanisław Grocholski (1858-1932)

Artur Grottger (1837-1867)

Gustaw Gwozdecki (1880-1935)

Alfons Karpiński (1875-1961)

Apoloniusz Kędzierski (1861-1939)

Roman Kochanowski (1857-1945)

Ignacy Korwin-Milewski (1846-1926)

Juliusz Kossak (1824-1899)

Wojciech Kossak (1856-1942)

Otolia Kraszewska (1859-1945)

Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski (1849-1915)

Stanisław Lentz (1861-1920)

Ludwik de Laveaux (1868-1894)

Alexander Lesser (1814-1884)

Jan Matejko (1838-1893)

Kazimierz Pochwalski (1855-1940)

Wacław Pawliszak (1849-1915)

Ignacy Pieńkowski (1877-1948)

Antoni Piotrowski (1853-1924)

Tadeusz Popiel (1863-1913)

Witold Pruszkowski (1846-1896)

Kazimierz Pułaski (1861-1947)

Bronisława Rychter-Janowska (1868-1953)

Jan Bogumił Rosen (1854-1936)

Zygmunt Rozwadowski (1870-1950)

Tadeusz Rybkowski (1848-1926)

Józef Simmler (1823-1868)

Zofia Stryjeńska (1891-1976)

Franciszek Streitt (1839-1890)

Henryk Szczygliński (1881-1944)

Ludwik Stasiak (1858-1924)

Zdzisław Suchodolski (1835-1908)

Józef Szermentowski (1833-1876)

Władysław Szerner (1836-1915)

Wacław Szymanowski (1859-1930)

Pantaleon Szyndler (1846-1905)

Stanisław Witkiewicz (1851-1915)

Leon Wyczółkowski (1852-1936)

Feliks Wygrzywalski (1875-1944)

Władysław Wankie (1860-1925)

Aleksander Wagner (1838-1919)

Franciszek Żmurko (1859-1910)