Author: Maksymilian Biskupski (born 1958, Warsaw)
Bronze, cast (2003)
Signed on the back on the lower right vertically: MAX. BISKUPSKI
Rectangular socle with the inscription on the front:
EDWARD HR. KRASIŃSKI | 1870 – 1940 |
FRIEND OF ARTISTS | BORN IN RADZIEJOWICE | MURDERED IN DACHAU | AMOR PATRIAE | NOSTRA LEX
Property of Dom Pracy Twórczej in Radziejowice, inv. no. 278
Gifted of Wiesława Mielniczuk and Kazimierz Mardoń from Fundacja im. Józefa Chełmońskiego
Unveiled: 3 May 2003
Cast: Andrzej Pruski
Pedestal: Executed as a gift by Antoni Młynarski of Żyrardów, from a stone block donated by Zenon Ludwinak of Zbiroża
The long bust, shown frontally, broad at the shoulders and narrowing toward the base, depicts Edward Krasiński (1870-1940), born in Radziejowice,
the last entailed heir of Opinogóra and one of the most distinguished and generous patrons of science and the arts in reborn Poland.
Depicted in many portraits and photographs, the sculpture presents a bald and smoothly modelled head with a high domed forehead, slightly wrinkled between brows, a long aquiline nose with an exquisitely captured enquiring look of squinted eyes and a broad, melancholic smile, which is partly covered by a small moustache. Despite the frontal view, the artist managed to suggest a subtle sense of movement by a gently folded coat falling on the shoulders, with a wide collar
Initiated by the management of the Palace in Radziejowice, as well as the Fundacja im. Józefa Chełmońskiego, the plaster model of this bust was placed in the hall of a new built public middle school in Radziejowice (Gimnazjum w Radziejowicach) and ceremonially unveiled on 27 May 2007, marking the naming of the school after Count Edward Krasiński. Another cast of the bust, also in bronze, was unveiled 17 February 2003 in foyer of the Polish Theatre in Warsaw which Krasiński was the co-founder of.
Text: Elżbieta Charazińska
Editing: Beata Fiugajska
Photo: Piotr Ligier