Stanisław Wyspiański

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Stanisław Wyspiański (January 15, 1869, Kraków – November 28, 1907, Kraków) was a Polish playwright, poet, painter and architect. He was a skilful cabinetmaker as well.

Self-portrait of Stanisław Wyspiański

Wyspiański was one of the most outstanding and multifaceted artist of his time in Europe. He successfully joined trends of modernism with themes of Polish folk tradition and Romantic history.

Stained-glass window in Franciscan Church, designed by Wyspiański

In a series of stained-glass windows in Franciscan church in Kraków he expressed an enormous dose of his religious devotion. His trademark Modernist style became nearly flamboyant there.

Wyspiański wrote a number of plays covering critical moments of Polish history. His famous drama The Wedding Reception (Wesele) is a deeply critical yet sarcastic expose on Polish society of 19th century. "Wesele transformed Wyspianski from a moderately successful visual and verbal artist associated with the Young Poland movement into a national dramatist-visionary whose significance in Poland is comparable to Yeats's in Ireland, O'Neill's in America, or Maeterlinck's in Belgium." [1]

Wyspiański is considered to be the founder of the Polish modern drama; his plays, often allegorical, circle around historical events and the contemporary life of Poland, as in The Legion (1900), The Wedding Reception (1901), Liberation (1903), and November Night (1904). His other plays are drawn from Greek mythology, e.g., Return of Odysseus (English translation: 1966).

Wyspiański's dominant concern was the renewal of Polish independence as well as individual freedoms.