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Polish playwright, poet, artist, and creator of modern Polish theatre. Stanislaw Wyspianski died exactly 115 years ago, that is, on November 28, 1907, in Krakow.
Stanislaw Wyspianski was born on January 15, 1869, in Krakow. He grew up there until the end of the 19th century, then belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The place and environment in which he grew up largely shaped his thinking and artistic imagination.
After high school graduation, Wyspianski studied painting at the School of Fine Arts under Jan Matejko, the creator of great historical canvases. He also enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy at Jagiellonian University. Already as a student, he and his colleagues worked on the restoration of St. Mary’s Church.
After graduating from high school, he spent more than three years in Paris intermittently, finally returning to Krakow in September 1894. Wyspianski practised very different fields of art, executed with great courage and flair.
Wyspianski was an outstanding Polish literary and visual artist. He was a playwright, poet, painter, graphic artist, architect, and furniture designer. Wyspianski created a series of symbolic, national dramas within the artistic philosophy of the Young Poland Movement. What is more, unofficially he is sometimes called the Fourth Polish Bard.
Check also the selected works by Stanisław Wyspiański prepared by National Museum in Krakow (MNK).
Wyspianski was ill for many years and died of syphilis, which was incurable at the time. In the last period of his life, the physically ailing artist was treated in Rymanow and Bad Hall. Then he moved to a house he had bought in the village of Węgrzce. He died in a Krakow clinic at Siemiradzkiego 1 Street.