Wojciech Gerson
1831–1901 · Polish Realist painter, educator and art critic
Wojciech Gerson (Warsaw, 1831-Warsaw, 1901) was one of the foremost representatives of Polish Realism during the foreign Partitions of Poland, when the country did not exist as an independent state. His importance lies both in his own paintings and in his teaching, since he trained a generation of artists who later renewed Polish art.
He enrolled at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw and graduated with honors, then studied historical painting in St. Petersburg at the Imperial Academy of Arts under Alexey Markov. After graduating with a silver medal he went to Paris to study with Léon Cogniet. He returned to Warsaw in 1858, the city where he lived for the rest of his life, though he continued to travel abroad until the turn of the century.
From 1865 he taught in his own workshop and, in 1872, became a professor at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, a post he held until his retirement in 1896. His students included Józef Chełmoński, Leon Wyczółkowski, Władysław Podkowiński and Józef Pankiewicz. He introduced outdoor landscape trips and genre studies into teaching, an approach that left a clear mark on his pupils. In 1878 he was named a professor at the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg.
His patriotic historical paintings, scenes of country life and mountain landscapes are the works most valued in Poland. He also worked as an architect and art critic. He died in Warsaw at the age of 70.
Works (2)
History painting by Wojciech Gerson, dated 1887 and executed in oil on a large canvas. It depicts Casimir I the Restorer, a Polish ruler whose epithet refers to the restoration of the realm. Held at the National Museum in Wrocław, the work belongs to a genre that revived episodes of a nation's past for its contemporary audience.
The painting depicts Kęstutis and Vytautas, historical figures held captive by Jogaila, as its title states. Wojciech Gerson completed it in 1873 in oil on a large canvas. Its scale and subject place it within nineteenth-century history painting. The available information does not clarify its commission or composition in further detail, so this description stays with what the title and technical data indicate.
Where to see the work
- National Museum in Wrocław Wrocław · 1
- Museum of Art in Łódź Łódź · 1
Teachers and pupils
Pupils
- Józef Marian Chełmoński 1849–1914
- Leon Wyczółkowski 1852–1936
- Stanisław Jarocki 1871–1944
- Maria Gażycz 1860–1935
Curiosities
Looted paintings
A large number of his paintings were seized by Nazi Germany during the Second World War and never recovered. Archival photographs of some of these works survive, allowing us to see what they looked like even though the originals are lost. For this reason, much of his output is known today only through those images.
A society to support the arts
In 1860 he co-founded the Fine-Arts Society Zachęta, the first support group of its kind in Warsaw under foreign occupation. Its aim was to back Polish artists in a very difficult setting. Gerson thus took part in the artistic life of his city well beyond the classroom and the studio.
An anatomy book for artists
Besides his paintings and teaching, he published a book of anatomy for artists. He also wrote art reviews, which shows his interest in the technical training of the painter. Both activities complete the picture of a creator closely tied to the teaching of his time.