Emigration as an artistic turning point – Ignacy Szczedrowski, Konstanty Kukiewicz and Tadeusz Gorecki at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg
Emigration as an artistic turning point – Ignacy Szczedrowski, Konstanty Kukiewicz and Tadeusz Gorecki at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg

Summary/Abstract: The article describes a turning point in an individual artistic development as a result of emigration and study abroad. The discussion centers on three artists from Vilnius, who after receiving initial training, left to study at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. The decision to leave their home city was forced by the changes in the political situation. In 1832, as a result of the repressions in the aftermath of the November Uprising, the Vilnius University was closed, and so was its school of painting. For each of the artists examined in this article, the years of study at the Saint Petersburg Academy became a turning point in the development of their personal style, though each of them chose a different artistic path: Ignacy Szczedrowski was inspired by the so-called “Venetsianov school of painting”, Konstanty Kukiewicz learned from the old Dutch genre and battle paintings, and Tadeusz Gorecki was influenced by the approved academic doctrine. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how a stay in Saint Petersburg completely changed the approach of the three painters to art, and left its imprint not only on their artistic achievements, but also on the course of their painting careers and personal lives.

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