The display includes four tapestries that adorned the Polish Pavilion in New York, in addition to seven canvasses by members of the St. Luke’s Brotherhood group of artists.
After the outbreak of World War II, the paintings and tapestries remained in the United States. They were kept at the Le Moyne Jesuit College in Syracuse, New York, beginning in 1958.
Several months ago, after many years of negotiations, Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Culture Minister Piotr Gliński signed an agreement with the Le Moyne College for the return of these works of art to Poland.
Addressing a press conference at the exhibition’s launch, Gliński described the return of the artworks after 83 years as “a great day for Polish culture … a truly great homecoming.”
The paintings portray pivotal scenes from Polish history, such as the greeting of Emperor Otto III by Polish King Boleslaus the Brave at the shrine of St. Adalbert, the patron saint of Poland, at Gniezno in 1000 AD; the relief of the siege of Vienna in 1683; and the adoption of the May 3rd Constitution in 1791. They are executed in what is known as pre-Raphaelite style, reminiscent of medieval painting.
The paintings were commissioned for the New York Fair by the Polish government from the Brotherhood of St. Luke, a group of artists led by Tadeusz Pruszkowski.
The tapestries were designed by Mieczysław Szymański for the World’s Fair in Paris in 1937. They extol the military successes of King Jan Sobieski the Third and the glory of the Republic of Two Nations, or the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, during his reign from 1674 to 1696.
The exhibition at Warsaw’s National Museum opens to the general public on Thursday and runs until October 23.
(mk/gs)