The rolled-up painting, without frame or loom, was found in the attic of an old one-storey house in Warsaw by a married couple, Katarzyna Ziemkiewicz and Mirosław Krupski. They reported their discovery to the National Museum in Warsaw, which passed the information on to restitution specialists at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
The documentation and photographs found indicate that the painting was commissioned from Józef Mehoffer in 1921 by the then Ministry of Arts and Culture and the Civil Chancellery of the Head of State. It was then incorporated into the State Art Collections, an institution dedicated to the management of works of art, historical monuments or furniture owned by the state.
Originally, the portrait was displayed at the Bureau of the Council of Ministers of the Second Polish Republic, where the Presidential Palace is now located. The large-format canvas was also on loan for exhibitions, e.g. at the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts or the Baryczka House in the Old Town Square. A few years before the outbreak of the Second World War, the painting was moved to the building of the Warsaw City Headquarters on Piłsudski Square. It was from there that Mehoffer’s painting was probably evacuated and hidden from possible looting or destruction by the German army, which occupied the building as early as September 1939.
The very poor state of preservation of the painting indicates that the place where it was hidden has not changed over the last 85 years. Unsuitable conditions, the lack of a frame and other unfavourable factors have caused numerous deformations and damage to the support underneath as well as cracks and losses in the paint layer.
The portrait is distinguished by its decorative elaboration and clear composition, in which the centrally placed figure of Józef Piłsudski was inscribed into an oval formed by motifs of symbolic significance. Dressed in a gala uniform, Piłsudski is standing leaning on a sabre in front of a portal leading to Wawel Cathedral. In the foreground, above a shield with the date 1918, indicating the year Poland regained independence, is a crowned eagle, reminiscent of the eagle from the times of King Stanislaus II Augustus. Behind the marshal, against the background of the open doors of Wawel Cathedral, is a radiant halo. In it one can see the figures of two winged geniuses in armour surrounding the historical coat of arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the Eagle and Vytis topped with a crown. Józef Piłsudski was thus presented not only as a figure of merit in Poland’s regaining of independence, but also as a restorer of the country’s former glory. Its placement in front of the entrance to Wawel Cathedral can also be seen as a foreshadowing of his future burial place.
We recover lost works of art
‘The Department for the Restitution of Cultural Property operates within the structure of the Cultural Heritage Department, carrying out all activities concerning the search for and restitution of lost cultural property. We are currently conducting 178 restitution cases around the world, including 51 in Poland,’ noted Hanna Wróblewska, Minister of Culture and National Heritage. ‘Restitution activities have been and will continue to be carried out at the ministry, but I would also encourage everyone to be particularly attentive, as lost works of art can also be found in the country - at auctions, put up for sale or, as in the case of the Mehoffer painting, in one’s own attic - she added. Hanna Wróblewska Minister of Culture and National Heritage
- enlarge
- enlarge
- enlarge
- enlarge
- enlarge
1/4
‘A Portrait of Marshal Józef Piłsudski’ painted by Józef Mehoffer is a priceless acquisition for us because of the outstanding artist and the protagonist but also the fate of the painting itself. It will be an important exhibit in the future permanent exhibition in its section devoted to the Second Polish Republic,’ said PHM Director Robert Kostro.
Earlier - as part of the restitution activities of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage - the collection of the PHM included a series of seven paintings by the Brotherhood of St Luke and four tapestries by Mieczysław Szymański from the Polish Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. The collection of the Polish History Museum currently holds over 60,000 objects, including more than a thousand on deposit. Objects are acquired primarily for the permanent exhibition under preparation and planned thematic temporary exhibitions. These include works of art, examples of artistic craftsmanship, photographs, maps, medals and decorations, flags, military and archaeological artefacts, documents reflecting social life and invaluable archival items. The artefacts come from different periods of Polish history.