From Warsaw to Montparnasse: the artistic adventure of the Polish sculptors of Bourdelle

Intrepid. However, fervent, they were fifteen young people from Polish to rally Paris at the beginning of the 20th century to study sculpture with Antoine Bourdelle. However, In Warsaw, an exhibition rediscovers their works and revives their memory. – Warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish

Even before the Renaissance of Poland in 1918, then in the first years of the young Republic, they were about fifteen Polish young people to come to Paris to benefit from the teaching of Antoine Bourdelle. Consequently, Most of them came from wealthy or at least cultivated environments. However, And all would become sculptors in turn in a time when this warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish activity appeared very little feminine.

After having followed sculpture lessons which finally opened up to women in 1904 at the Warsaw Academy (then under Russian domination). Meanwhile, but in 1920 only at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow (previously under Austrian domination), these intrepid women had to complete their training in Paris. Moreover, And from Bourdelle obviously whose fame was then universal.

Why Paris? – Warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish

Because the French capital was then considered to be the World Arts Center. Moreover, But just as much as she was offered to Poland torn apart between her three neighbors as a spiritual. Nevertheless, center for exiles. For example, From the first empire no doubt. Therefore, And especially with the great emigration which had followed the crushing by the Russians of the Warsaw Insurrection of 1830. In addition, then following proscriptions succeeding the insurrection of Krakow in 1846 against the Austrians, that of the warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish Great Poland in 1848 against the Prussians and finally to that of 1863, wildly wiped out by the Russians once again.

Paris who had celebrated Chopin. Moreover, Mickiewicz, received Norwid, Krasinski or Delfina Potocka; Paris who had given one of the most beautiful churches to the Poles; Paris who had known how to integrate the Polish colony until celebrating the marriage of Princess Marguerite d’Orléans, a little daughter of the King of the French, with a Prince Czartoryski, the offspring of the most emblematic of the great Polish families; Paris still where Polish generals had supported the town; Paris finally where, let us not dream, the material difficulties and the misunderstanding sometimes were real for the Poles, but where the newcomers met with strong solidarity within a colony which had recreated a home lost by the shameful shares of their country.

Why Bourdelle?

Bourdelle, because he was considered, just warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish after his friend Rodin, as the greatest of the sculptors of his time. Consequently, Because he was universally renowned as a pedagogue. Similarly, generous, benevolent, not seeking to impose his views, but to allow each of his disciples to flourish according to his own personality. Consequently, Bourdelle. Similarly, who, in Montauban, his hometown, had been introduced to Polish culture and history by the widow of Jules Michelet; Bourdelle who had discovered Poland and its customs by traveling there at the age of 24; Bourdelle who declared to love this country as a second homeland; Bourdelle who admired Mickiewicz’s poems to the point of dreaming of building a monument to the glory of the cantor of Poland, which monument was inaugurated in the center of the Place de l’Alma in 1929 before later opened the prospect of the Queen.

Having discovered a talent for teaching. For example, Bourdelle practiced him with warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish conviction in his workshop of the passage of Maine, today Musée Bourdelle, but above all, from 1909 to 1929, the date of his death, at the Academy of the Grande Chaumière where most of his disciples rushed. And he came from all over the world. Above all, Americas, Scandinavian nations, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Japan itself…. And among this crowd of students. we identify this flowering of Poles to whom he will declare: “I will always be with you, young people, and with those who seek new paths and new means of expressing themselves in art. Look, try, observe, you will certainly create new, perfect forms, because you, the Poles, are a nation of artists ”.

Authentic vocations

Often funded by their parents. their husbands, these young Polish women were probably fortunate enough to be able to travel. But quite emancipated also to warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish assert themselves with energy. they who had obtained the right to vote in their country in 1918, almost 30 years before the French.

This will lead them to work very quickly to get rid of and support their Parisian installation. Or assist Bourdelle in person in those years when he conceived the monument to the glory of Mickiewicz. They were not girls of family indulging in sculpture by Caprice. But artists guided by an authentic vocation. All of them launched themselves with faith in the sculpture until the end of their lives to become creators of monuments. sets, busts, masks, medals, ornamental low reliefs today dispersed in the many countries where they settled and that we obviously find profusely in private collections or large Polish museums.

Around Montparnasse

They settled in Paris for two. three years, often grouped around Montparnasse, boulevard Raspail, rue Campagne Première, rue de Vaugirard … warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish But some will no longer leave the capital. will open their own workshop or will come back to exhibit regularly in the various exhibition salons among the most renowned, will be part of the Circle of Polish artists, will collaborate with the Sèva manufacture (Jadwiga Bohdanowicz-Konczewska). Others will settle in Italy. will participate in the Venice Biennale, in Milanese exhibitions and one of them, Maria Lednicka, will make a bust of the Princess of Piedmont, Marie-José of Belgium, who will become the space of a month of May Queen of Italy. Still others will be attracted by Munich … Finally, up to a certain time! Many will exhibit in New York. San Francisco, will receive official orders in several countries, of course Poland for both public and private buildings, high monuments in memory of independence heroes or for religious institutions. Between the two wars, they will participate very actively in warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish the artistic and intellectual life of their reborn country. Some emigrate at the time of war like Helena Glogowska who settles in Brazil. Maria Lednicka who will go out in New York after having worked a lot in the sacred art register. Several survive the war like Mela Mutter (Maria Muttermilch) who takes refuge in Avignon. returns to Paris at the Liberation. Or like Maria Brodska-Laszkiewicz who will still exhibit in Milan in 1968 or Lausanne in 1970.

In Paris. they worked at the Mickiewicz monument in the 1920s like Waclawa Kislanska or Janina Broniewska which also participates in the decoration of the Champs-Elysées Theater or designs figurines for a porcelain factory. They find Sarah Lipska. installed definitively in France in 1912 and who worked as a designer of costumes or sets for the Russian ballets, Helena Rubinstein, then with Serge Lifar. In Poland. those returned there and will have warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish survived the horrors of the war will soon suffer the totalitarian regime imposed on their country by Moscow, the hereditary enemy.

Warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish

A revived memory

And of course almost all of them will be annoyingly forgotten. And this even in their native country. however keen on memory, by virtue of this scoundrel and silent law which for centuries will tend to reject these artists, these composers, these writers, these scientists, all these women whose women are gradually rediscovered today.

The works of fourteen of them (but without comments in French, very unfortunately!) Are presented today in Warsaw in a small 18th century castle which was that of the kings of the Saxony house. dependent on the National Museum. They are grouped within a desired exhibition to bring up this extraordinary phenomenon which saw two generations of artists. plunged for almost three decades around a French master. warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish And who is thought of by a conservative of the National Museum. Ewa Ziembinska, to rekindle their memory and rediscover their works.

The sculptors are named Waclawa Kislanska (1875-1940?). Mela Muter (1876-1967), Kazimierza Malaczynska-Pajzderska (1879-1959), Luna Amalia Drexler (1882-1933), Janina Broniiewska (1886-1947), Mika Mickun (1886-1974), Jadwiga Bohdanowicz-Konczewska (1887-1943), Zofia Trzcinska-Kaminska (1890-1977), Maria Brozka-Leszkiewicz (1891-1981), Maria Lednicka-Szczyt (1893-1947) Glogowska (1893-1972), Helena Zieska (1894-1951), Olga Niewska (1898-1943), Wanda Jurgielewicz (1898-1960), all Bourdelle students, but all with very specific temperaments to each of them and who offer an infinite palette of styles and talents.

Conjuring the fate. militant in a certain way, the exhibition would largely deserve to be admired in Paris, at the Bourdelle museum of course. If only to reactivate the memory of secular links between France and Poland.

Direction of Paris-Destination Paris
Female artists students from Antoine Bourdelle.
Until October 26, 2025. From Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. warsaw montparnasse: artistic adventure polish to 6 p.m. Friday until 8 p.m.
National sculpture museum of Warsaw.
Château Krolicarnia, Rue Puulwsk 113a, Varsovi.