Historic Art Gallery
After almost 20 years, a historical collection of painting returns to Herbst Palace. It will be exhibited in the coachhouse spaces, adapted specifically for exhibition purposes. As a result of thorough renovation of the historic building modern exhibition rooms have been created which fulfill the highest contemporary standards in terms of presenting art works. It is in these newly-created rooms that the unique collection of Early Modern and Modern art of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź will be presented.
The spaces of the new gallery allows to present only a part of the collection of painting owned by the museum. The exhibition prepared for the opening includes the selected works of Polish and European art. Visitors will be able to see both the pieces from the Julian and Kazimierz Bartoszewicz’s collection (the donation of this collection to the City of Łódź was a vital contribution to creating the museum’s collection) and the works purchased in the 1930s by the authorities of the administrative district of the City of Łódź as well as those collected by Łódź factory owners, all of which contribute to the unique character of the collection.
The paintings on exhibition include the internationally renowned masterpiece of Polish painting – Portrait of the Artist’s Mother (1853) by Henryk Rodakowski, the works of Jan Matejko (e.g. Alchemist Sedziwoj and King Zygmunt III Waza, 1867), Aleksander Gierymski (Old Town Gate, 1883), Leon Wyczółkowski (i.e. A Game of Croquet, 1895; Rybak, 1896), Stanisław Wyspiański – Sleeping Mietek (1904). The exhibition also includes the works of the artists connected with the so-called ”Munich school”: Józef Brandt, Maksymilian Gierymski, Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski. An important part of the collection is held by the works of Jacek Malczewski which include Intermezzo (1918) – a painting donated to the museum in 1939 by a Łódź factory owner Karol Rajmund Eisert. Another part of the exhibition that draws the visitor’s attention are the works of Vlastimil Hofmann, e.g. Portrait of Kazimierz Bartoszewicz (1918) donated by the sitter. The exhibition is made complete by the paintings of Olga Poznańska purchased from the painter in Paris with the financial support of the National Culture Fund; they are: Portrait of Eugene Gondon (ca. 1925) and Portrait of Frida Eissler, a Pianist (ca. 1928).
Paintings by European artists are yet another vital part of the exhibition. The ones worth particular attention are portraits painted by the representatives of the Venetian school of the 15th and 16th c. (i.e. AN Portrait of the Doge Michele Steno, from the first half of the 15th c.) as well as paintings created in 17th-18th century depicting mythological, biblical and genre themes. The presented works also include masterpieces by Italian masters (e.g. Giuseppe B. Chiari’s Triumph of Venus, Jacopo Amigoni’s Rebecca and Isaac at the Well and Dutch painters (i.e. Claes C. Moeyaert Jacob Despairing Over the Blood-stained Clothes of Joseph, Nicolaes Maes Portrait of a Man in a Wig).
Curator: Dorota Berbelska
Coachhouse is an outbuilding of the Herbst Palace. It was designed in 1893 by Adolf Seligson (1867-1919). Built of red brick with an ornament in stucco it resembles French buildings. The structure used to house coachhouse, stables with eight stalls, living quarters in the tower and a boiler room in the basement.
