Author: Alfons Karny (1901, Białystok – 1989, Warsaw)
Bronze, contemporary cast after the original version, c. 1950
Signed on the lower right: A. KARNY
Property of DPT in Radziejowice, inv. no. 361/2012
Transferred from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2012)
The sculpture depicts Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849), a world-famous composer and pianist of the Romantic period. Because of the considerable renown the artist enjoyed during his lifetime, his likenesses – painted, drawn, graphic, photographic (daguerreotypes) or sculptural were created in dozens of faithful or idealised versions. The number of such representations increased even more after the composer’s death along with the worldwide reception of his masterpieces. In the 20th century, this was particularly visible, especially in monumental sculpture, created in realistic or symbolic form, usually inspired by the old iconography. In almost every Polish city, not only where Chopin had been a guest, authorities, and sometimes composer’s enthusiast thought it was appropriate to have a monument to the composer.
Karny modelled Chopin in plaster three times (1937), unfortunately, all these works were lost during the war. He returned in 1948, making a plaster model, which a year later was cast in bronze (the work made for Pekin), and in 1955 – cast iron.
The Radziejowice portrait is a classic portrait viewed at the front, with a realistic slightly lifted head, resting on a long neck with a clearly defined Adam’s apple. Thin, long face is framed with medium-length sweptback hair. With its morbidly emaciated form, marked with the sharpened contour of a long, aquiline nose, eyes partially covered by the eyelids beneath subtly defined brows, and prominent, tightly closed lips, it recalls Chopin’s death mask made by Auguste Clésinger. The sitter’s face, distinctly smoothed, contrasts with the vigorously sculpted hair, articulated through longer and shorter chisel strokes. The portrait can be viewed both en face and in profile.
Text: Elżbieta Charazińska
Editing: Beata Fiugajska
Photo: Piotr Ligier