Sukiennice Museum

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Sukiennice Museum a.k.a. The Gallery of the 19th Century Polish Art in Sukiennice, is a division of the National Museum in Kraków, Poland. (Polish: Muzeum Narodowe). The Gallery is located on the upper floor of the Sukiennice Cloth Hall in the centre of the Main Market Square in Old Town Kraków.

"Pochodnie Nerona" (Nero's Torches) by Henryk Siemiradzki, 1876, Sukiennice Museum, Kraków

The Gallery holds the biggest permanent exhibit of 19th century Polish painting and sculpture, in four grand rooms.

Currently, due to major renovations, the Gallery is closed to visitors until 2009. The bulk of the gallery's collection was moved to the Niepołomice castle for display beginning October 2006.

Initially, the Sukiennice Museum shared the upper floor of the Cloth Hall with the Fine Arts Society. The first major acquisition of the National Museum in Kraków was "Nero’s Torches" ("Pochodnie Nerona"), a painting (above) presented to the city by painter Henryk Siemiradzki. The majority of today’s collection in Sukiennice consists of gifts from collectors, artists and their families.

"Czwórka" by Józef Chełmoński, 1881, Sukiennice Museum, Kraków

The arrangement of the Gallery resembles 19th-century Salon. The Enlightenment Room features portraits and historical paintings from the 18th century, such as Polish and foreign Classicist and pre-Romantics Marcello Bacciarelli, Józef Grassi, Per Krafft, Józef Pitschmann, Aleksander Orłowski, Franciszek Smuglewicz, Michał Stachowicz and Kazimierz Wojniakowski.

The Piotr Michałowski Room includes his own paintings of "The Cardinal", "Seńko", portraits on horseback as well as battle scenes with the famed "Somosierra". The Room of The Prussian Homage features 19th-century Polish historical panoramas by Jan Matejko, paintings by Artur Grottger, Henryk Rodakowski, Henryk Siemiradzki, Jacek Malczewski and others.

The Four-In-Hand Room is devoted to landscape painting of the 19th century: Jan Nepomucen Głowacki, Wojciech Gerson, Józef Chełmoński, Adam Chmielowski, Józef Brandt, Maksymilian and Aleksander Gierymski, Józef Pankiewicz and Leon Wyczółkowski, including Władysław Podkowiński’s controversial "Ecstasy" (1894).

Sculptures include Pius Weloński’s "Gladiator", Walery Gadomski’s "Salome", Piotr Wójtowicz’s "Perseus With the Head of Medusa", Teodor Rygier’s "Bacchante", Antoni Pleszowski’s "Sadness", Piotr Michałowski’s "Napoleon on Horseback" and Stanisław Lewandowski’s "A Slav Breaking Chains". Among the collection of portrait sculptures are, Piotr Michałowski’s self-portraits, Antoni Kurzawa’s "Mickiewicz Awaking the Genius of Poetry", Antoni Madeyski’s "Portrait of Aleksander Gierymski", Wiktor Brodzki’s "Instigations of Love", Piotr Wójtowicz’s "After a Bath" and Antoni Madeyski’s "Greyhound".