Dębicki, Stanisław
Dębicki, Stanisław Mieczysław, Polish painter, member of the “Munich School”. 1884: student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich; 1885, at the private painting school of Paul Nauen. *4.12.1866 Lubaczów, †12.8.1924 Cracow. 1881 and 1883/84: he studies at the Vienna Art Academy (amongst others) under Christian Griepenkerl (1839-1912). 1882/83: at the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts /Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Krakowie under Władysław Łuszczkiewicz (1828-1900). On 15.10.1884 he enrols in the painting class at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, studies under Sandór (Alexander von) Wagner (1838-1919). 1885: he studies in Munich at the private painting school of Paul Nauen (1859-1932). 1890: he goes to Paris to study at the Académie Colarossi under the painter Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret (1852-1929) and the sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet (1824-1910). From 1891: resident in Lemberg/Lwów (now Lviv). From 1897 he is a member of the Cracow artists’ association Sztuka and the Painters’ Association for the Promotion of Religious Art/Stowarzyszenie Malarzy dla Podniesienia Sztuki Religijnej. From 1899: member of the Association of Polish artists in Lemberg/Związek Artystów Polskich we Lwowie. From 1902: member of the Vienna Secession. From 1909 onwards he teaches at the Cracow Art Academy in the faculty of decorative painting. 1923: full Professor. From 1885: his genre compositions, figure and character studies follow the tradition of the realist Munich Painting School. During stays in Pokuttya in South-East Galicia he paints atmospheric views of Jewish ghettos and penetrating character studies. His interest in the problems of light and the movement of figures leads him towards Impressionism. During his time in Lemberg in the 1890s he paints impressionist landscapes. Furthermore he creates a large range of genres, motifs and styles, including symbolist interiors and romantic allegories. From 1900 he becomes interested in the Vienna Secession style and Japonism, and works on commercial art, ornaments and book illustrations. He creates murals, amongst others for the Basilica of the Assumption Cathedral in Lemberg, sculptures, stage sets and sketches for furniture and ceramics. In his late work he returns to older genre compositions, paints pictures and self-portraits, as well as allegoric religious compositions in mystic atmospheres. His works can be found in the national museums in Breslau, Cracow and Warsaw, in the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom/Muzeum Górnośląskie w Bytomiu, in the Silesian Museum in Katowice/Muzeum Śląskie w Katowicach and in the National Gallery in Lviv.
Solo exhibitions: 1928 Lemberg (book design) / 1966 Breslau, Silesian Museum/ Muzeum Śla̜skie we Wrocławiu
Further Reading: Piotr Łukaszewicz: Stanisław De̜bicki 1866-1924, Muzeum Śla̜skie we Wrocławiu, Breslau 1966; Aleksandra Melbechowska-Luty: Wrocławska wystawa Stanisława Dębickiego (1866-1924), in: Biuletyn historii sztuki, 29, 1967, p. 72-79; Halina Stępień/Maria Liczbińska: Artyści polscy w środowisku monachijskim w latach 1828-1914. Materiały źródłowe, Warsaw 1994, p. 15, 34; Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, vol. 25, Munich/Leipzig 2000, p. 63; Halina Ste̜pień: Artyści polscy w środowisku monachijskim w latach 1856-1914 (Studia z historii sztuki / Instytut Sztuki, Polska Akademia Nauk, 50), Warsaw 2003; Zofia Bednarska/Tadeusz Z. Bednarski: Krakowskim szlakiem Stanisława Dębickiego, Cracow 2009; Egzotyczna Europa. Kraj urodzenia na płótnach polskich monachijczyków/Das exotische Europa. Heimatvisionen auf den Gemälden der polnischen Künstler in München, exhibition catalogue. Suwałki 2015
Online: Matriculation data base, Matriculation book 3, Academy of Fine Arts Munich, 00095 Stanislaus Debicki, http://matrikel.adbk.de/matrikel/mb_1884-1920/jahr_1884/matrikel-00095
Many works at artyzm.com, http://artyzm.com/e_artysta.php?id=94&page=1
Many works at Pinakoteka Zascianek, http://www.pinakoteka.zascianek.pl/Debicki/Index.htm
Axel Feuß, March 2017
