Kazimierz
Woźnicki (Fr. Casimir de Woznicki), (1878-1949), man of letters,
columnist, emigration activist, diplomat, librarian, bibliophile and
collector. He was one of the leading figures of the Polish emigration
in Paris before World War I.
He
was born in Woźniki, near Płock, into a family of impoverished
landowners. He studied natural sciences, agriculture, and economic
and social science in Cracow, Halle and Berlin. In Germany, he
simultaneously studied and intensively worked for Polish patriotic
conspirators’ organizations. In early 1900, under the risk of being
arrested, he came back to Cracow for a short time and then moved to
Paris. At Sorbonne and the Free School of Political Sciences he
continued his studies on French literature, law, and diplomacy. He
worked, among other places, at the Polish School in Batignolles. In
1904 he received a post of second librarian at the Polish National
Museum in Rapperswil. In 1910 he founded and was editor in chief of
the magazine "French News: a Monthly Dedicated to Literary
Criticism and Bibliography". Between 1907 and 1919 he was the
director of Agence Polonaise de Presse (Polish Press Agency in
Paris), the task of which was to conduct a wide scale pro-Poland
propaganda in France, a country largely sympathizing with Russia.
After
the outbreak of the World War I Woźnicki became a correspondent of
the Central Polish Agency in Lausanne. In 1919 he started his
diplomatic service as press attaché and later secretary of the
Polish Diplomatic Mission in Paris, and in mid-1924 he became second
secretary to the Polish Embassy.
In
September of 1939 he received the function of secretary to the Deputy
Prime Minister and Minister of Propaganda Stanisław Stroński in the
government of General Władysław Sikorski. In the summer of 1940,
after the Germans’ entry into Paris, Woźnicki did not leave with
the government but stayed in France where he supervised the saving of
the holdings of the Polish Library. After the war, he took part in
the works of the Polish Association of Book Friends in Paris. He died
at the age of 71 and was buried at the Montmorency cemetery, near
Paris. In recognition of his merits, Woźnicki was awarded several
national distinctions, such as the Officer's Cross of the Order of
Polonia Restituta (1927), French order of the Legion of Honour:
Knight Cross (1920), and six years later the Officer's Cross.
Woźnicki spent
years creating his collection, with the aim that it would enrich the
public holdings in the future. He assembled a precious collection of
books, encompassing c. 30 thousand volumes.
Among
the institutions Woźnicki decided to give parts of his collection
to, the National Museum in Warsaw was especially favoured. Little by
little, Woźnicki transferred to our holdings consecutive parts of
his print collection, one and half thousand prints in total. He
attached great significance to the public role of collecting. He was
convinced that, no matter what the type and value of the works
gathered, collecting is a sort of social mission with a strong
culture-creative power.
Among
the particularly precious and oldest prints from Woźnicki's
collection is a set of 68 works of the Lvov graphic, who worked in
Paris in the first half of the 17th century, Jan Ziarnko
(Jean Le Grain). The artist represented in this collection with the
most numerous set of works is undoubtedly Jean Pierre Norblin de la
Gourdaine.
Among
the artists working at the turn of the 19th and 20th
centuries, Feliks Stanisław Jasiński, one of the most famous
graphic artists in Europe, holds an especially favoured place. Other
outstanding graphic artists of the time, such as Józef
Pankiewicz, Jan Stanisławski, Konstanty Brandel, Franciszek
Siedlecki and Antoni Kamieński, are represented in Woźnicki's
collection by single works. It is worth taking a closer look at four
aquaforts, unique in Polish collections, of Jan Mirosław Peske,
famous graphic artist of Polish origin, highly regarded in France.
Woźnicki's collection
has, for the most part, rather an iconographic than an artistic
character. It thoroughly documents the history of the relations
between Poland and France. It encompasses historic, symbolic and even
satiric scenes and portraits of important figures.
Marcin Romeyko-Hurko
translated by Anna Kiełczewska
Selected prints
Jan
Ziarnko (Jean le Grain) (c.1575–c.1630) Satire on the Life
and Death of Concino Concini, 1617
Etching, paper, 19,5 x
29,4
National Museum in Warsaw, Inv.no.Gr.Pol.5820
Stamped
bottom right: KW
Donated by Kazimierz Woźnicki, 18 XII 1926
Jean
Pierre Norblin de la Gourdaine (1745–1830) Ecce Homo,
1775–1789
Etching, paper, 37,2 x 40,9
National Museum in
Warsaw, Inv.no.Gr.Pol.4120/1
Stamped bottom right: KW
Donated
by Kazmierz Woźnicki
Nicolas
Noël Le Mire (1724-1800), after Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune
(1741-1814) The Troelfth Cake [The so-called Royal Cake], 1773
Engraving, paper,
30,0 x 20,5 cm
Signed: Erimeln Sculp.
National Museum
in Warsaw, 64483
Stamped in lower right-hand corner: KW
Donated by Kazimierz Woźnicki, 11 XII 1926
Louis
François Charon (1783-1831), after Louis François Aubry
(1767-1851) Prince Józef Poniatowski, ok. 1813
Aquatint, paper, 40,0 x 29,0 cm
National Museum in Warsaw,
Gr.Pol.15650
Stamped in lower right-hand corner: KW
Donated by Kazimierz Woźnicki
Denis
Auguste Raffet (1804–1860) Midnight Army Inspection, 1837
Lithograph, paper, 19,5 x 26,5
Signed bottom right: Raffet
1837
National Museum in Warsaw, Inv.no.64447
Stamped bottom
right: KW
Donated by Kazimierz Woźnicki, 4 II 1924
Cyprian
Kamil Norwid (1821–1883) Pythia, c.1863
Etching,
paper, 9,2 x 8,6
National Museum in Warsaw, Inv.no.Gr.Pol.1878
Stamped bottom right: KW
Donated by Kazimierz Woźnicki, 1 IV
1925
Leopold
Flameng (1863–1911) Allegory of Poland in 1863,
c.1863
Etching, engraving, paper, 13,3 x 8,2
National Museum
in Warsaw, 39382
Stamped bottom right: KW
Donated by Kazmierz
Woźnicki, 4 II 1924
Antoni
Kamieński Portrait of Józef Piłsudski, 1913
Etching, paper, 23,5 x 14,1
On the bottom margin artist’s
dedication in pencil: Panu Kazimierzowi Woźnickiemu | na pamiątkę
czasów wielkiej wojny | w Paryżu dn.3.III.1918 roku | Antoni
Kamieński [For Mr Kazimierz Woźnicki | in souvenir of the
times of the Great War | in Paris dated 3.III.1918| Antoni
Kamieński]
National Museum in Warsaw,
Inv.no.Gr.Pol.18144
Stamped bottom right: KW
Donated by
Kazimierz Woźnicki, 1 IV 1925
Jan
Mirosław Peske (1870–1949) Saint Francis’ Chapel in
Bormes, 1900–1920
Etching, dry point, paper, Stamp 8/10;
29,5 x 39,7
National Museum in Warsaw, Inv.no.63386
Stamped
bottom right: KW
Donated by Kazimierz Woźnicki, 1 IV 1925
