Wacław Szymanowski
Wacław Szymanowski (August 23, 1859 – July 22, 1930) was a Polish sculptor and painter. He is best known for his statue of composer Frédéric Chopin in Warsaw's Łazienki Park.
Life
Szymanowski was born in Warsaw and was the son of Wacław Szymanowski, the journalist and writer (July 9, 1821 – December 21, 1886), and the father of Wacław Szymanowski, the physicist and politician (April 14, 1895 – January 15, 1965).[1]
Until about 1895 the painter-cum-sculptor occupied himself mainly with executing genre paintings of Polish mountaineers and Hutsuls, and portraits.[1]
He then turned to sculpture, creating compositions in Art Nouveau-Symbolist style. He designed the monuments to Artur Grottger in Kraków (1907) and to Frédéric Chopin in Warsaw; tomb monuments (including his father's at Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery); and portrait busts.[1] He died in Warsaw at age 70.
Chopin monument
In 1907 Szymanowski designed the bronze statue of Frédéric Chopin that now stands in the upper part of Warsaw's Łazienki Park, adjacent to Aleje Ujazdowskie (Ujazdów Avenue). The statue was originally to have been erected in 1910, on the centennial of Chopin's birth, but its execution was delayed by controversy about the design, then by the outbreak of World War I. The statue was finally cast and erected after the war, in 1926.[1]
During World War II, the statue was destroyed by the occupying Germans on May 31, 1940. It was reconstructed after the war, in 1958.[1] At the statue's base, since 1959, on summer Sunday afternoons are performed free piano recitals of Chopin's compositions. The stylized willow over Chopin's seated figure echoes a pianist's hand and fingers.
A 1:1-scale replica of Szymanowski's statue stands in Hamamatsu, Japan. There are also preliminary plans to erect another replica along Chicago's lakefront in addition to a different sculpture commemorating the artist in Chopin Park for the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth.
Szymanowski's statue was the world's tallest Chopin monument until the unveiling, on March 3, 2007, of the slightly taller, modernistic bronze in Shanghai, China.
See also
Notes
References
- Encyklopedia powszechna PWN (PWN Universal Encyclopedia), vol. 4, Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1976.
- Encyklopedia Warszawy (Encyclopedia of Warsaw), 1994.
- "Szymanowski Wacław". Internetowa encyklopedia PWN (in Polish). Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. Retrieved 2008-03-28.