Maksymilian Antoni Piotrowski

Maximilian (Maksymilian) Antoni Piotrowski (1813–1875) was a Polish painter and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kaliningrad. Additionally, he was a Polish patriot who took part in the national uprisings of the time.

Life Maximilian Antoni Piotrowski was born on June 8, 1813, in Bromberg, then in Prussia. His father Andrzej owned a bakery in the old town, at 22 Długa street. Andrzej's wife Teresa née Baranowska and himself moved to the city a year before Maximilian's birth, relocating from the nearby village of Koronowo. Maximilian spent his youth in his hometown, under the first decades of Prussian occupation.

After graduating from high school, Maximilian moved to Berlin at the age of 20 (1833) to study painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1835, he studied historical painting under the direction of Wilhelm Hensel. Having completed his studies in Berlin in 1838, he went on an artistic tour through Germany. He visited Düsseldorf where he was taught by Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow. Schadow was a member of the Nazarene movement aspiring to revive spirituality in art, with a return to Quattrocento-like features, thus differentiating from the pseudo-classicism then in vogue in Europe.

To achieve his artistic education, Maximilian traveled in the fall of 1842 to Italy. He first stayed in Rome where he had the opportunity to meet another member of the Nazarene movement, Johann Friedrich Overbeck. In spring of 1843, Maximilian embarked upon a journey through the Italian country. Fascinated by Italian landscapes, he painted many scenes depicting daily life, together with sentimental-romantic and religious compositions; such works were later exhibited in Berlin at one of his exhibitions (1844).

After Italy, he stayed in Munich to establish artistic contacts: accordingly, he met Peter von Cornelius and in particular Wilhelm von Kaulbach, an outstanding painter of historical scenes.

In early 1844, he moved back to Berlin, concluding his studies and staying there until 1847. During this period, Maximilian had a contract to work with a group on a monumental historical painting depicting an episode of the Anglo-Afghan War, commissioned by William Empton. However, the demise of the latter put to a sudden end of the project. The draft work was only at a preparatory stage based on cardboard material- be that as it may, the unfinished work was displayed at an 1846 exhibition in Berlin. The author kept from this project a drawing, Wounded english soldier that would be exhibited in 1925. Maximilian Piotrowski mastered these techniques: It was only after World War II that an extensive literature about the painter appeared.

From December 20, 1925, till January 25, 1926, an exhibition of Maximilian's works was set up in Bydgoszcz and in Toruń a year later, at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death. The artist, almost completely forgotten at that time, was portrayed through 92 works in the halls of the Municipal Museum. Until the ouset of the war, the museum carried out a campaign to collect Piotrowski's items: by 1939, over 100 oil paints, watercolors, tempera paintings and drawings were gathered from donations and purchases, such as: Counselor Adam Logi from Poznań donated in 1927, a Portrait of Wilhelm Schadow, Balcony scene, Portrait of the artist's siblings and Portrait of the artist's mother (from 1848); Father prelate Tadeusz Malczewski donated the oil painting St. Salome, painted in 1837 for the Bydgoszcz Cathedral; The artist's family (grandson Stanisław and niece - Pelagi Thierling from Poznań) donated 39 works, among which Artist's self-portrait with a palette in 1936; the museum purchased several oil paintings (Portrait of the artist's sister, Rest and revolutionist - a study) in 1928, and Portrait of a woman in a white dress in 1934.

Unfortunately, many of Piotrowski's works were destroyed during the last days of Bydgoszcz occupation, although the Nazi authorities ordered the entire collection to be evacuated to the countryside. The museum losses are estimated to 113 works (including 33 oil paintings, 3 watercolors, 1 tempa, 3 inks and 73 sketches and drawings), while only 10 paintings have been salvaged.

After the war, the District Museum in Bydgoszcz received 50 works (3 paintings and 47 drawings) by Maximilian Piotrowski from the Poznań Society of Friends of Learning. In a similar fashion, the institution kept on acquiring or purchasing works from the 1960s to the 1990s, like a batch of 84 drawings from a Poznań deposit in 1967. Latest acquisitions date back to 2018: Lady from Sorrento .

Exhibition of the artist's works were regularly presented by the District Museum (1948, 1963, 1970–1972, 1995). In 2000, for the 125th anniversary of Piotrowski's demise, the Bydgoszcz Museum exhibited the last exhibition to date. Currently, the Bydgoszcz museum collection comprises 21 paintings and 13 drawings and sketches, not to mention the deposit.

On November 26, 1950, for the 75th anniversary of his death, on the initiative of the Society of the Lovers of the City of Bydgoszcz , a commemorative plaque by Piotr Triebler has been placed on the wall of his family house at 22 Długa street. In addition, the association granted funds for the renovation of the painter's tombstone.

One of the streets in downtown Bydzgozcz has been named after the artist, the Maksymilian Piotrowski street.

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