Mikołaj Sarmat-Szyszłowski (1883-1915), artysta malarz i żołnierz Legionów Polskich. Zarys biografii

Abstract

MIKOŁAJ SARMAT-SZYSZŁOWSKI (1883-1915), PAINTER AND SOLDIER OF THE POLISH LEGIONS. A BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE

In the collection of the historical Museum of the City of Cracow there are two exhibits connected with the painter and graphic artist Mikołaj Sarmat Szyszłowski, who fell during a campaign of the Polish Legions. One exhibit is a drawing by this artist The Post on the Nida River from March, 1915; the other is a portrait of Szyszłowski by Kazimierz Witkiewicz at the beginning of 1916.
All the output of that artist, known to this days consists of seven works. Beside the drawing at the Historical Museum of the City of Cracow, there are two works kept in the National Museum in Cracow; there are also two Easter cards after Szyszłowski design printed by the artist himself at the front in March, 1915. They are in the Jagiellonian Library.
Mikołaj Szyszłowski was born in Kroszyn near Grodno on October 20, 1883. He began his higher education in Vilna and Warsaw, studying thanks to financial support from the Radziwiłłs of Nieśwież. In 1902 he fleed from the Kingdom to Galicia, where, after one year at the Royal Imperial State Technical School, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, in the atelier of Józef Mehoffer. The drawings in the collection of the National Museum in Cracow date from the period of his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, 1903-1906. They represent views of demolished Cracow city towers and the Grodzka gate. They are copies of the woodcuts by Koenig that illustrate the book The Guardian of Our Archaelogy by Ambroży Grabowski. The woodctus were based on Jerzy Głogowski’s watercolours from 1802-1809, when the artist participated in the conservation work of gates and towers of Cracow’s fortifications.
Szyszłowski started his political activity early. During the revolution in the Polish Kingdom he organized shooting exercises for a group of artists in Rybniszki in the Ukraine. Suspected of participating in a terrorist organization, he was forced to leave Galicia.
In 1906-1909 he travelled to France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Switzerland. In 1910 he came back to Cracow and joined the Z.W.C. (Active Struggle Association) and the Riflery Association. A year later he resumed his studies and came back to Mehoffer’s atelier. In 1911-1912, in the Fine Arts Society, he exhibited several lithographs he himself executed during his travel around Europe.
From c. 1911 he was a member of a left-wing student organization called Promień (the Beam). As one of the most active members of the ZWC and the Strzelec (Rifleman) organizations, he took part in the officers’ council in Lvov in 1912, and in the maneuvres of the summer school at Stróża in 1913, were he recruited volunteers to the Riflery Association and organized riflewomen’s divisions. In 1913 Józef Pilsudski appointed him head of the Krzeszowice district of the Riflery Association.
His activities for independence from 1912 and his employment as a drawing teacher in the 5th High School and R. Nowodworski High School could not be reconciled with continuation of his studies. In 1912 Szyszłowski left the Academy.
After the outbreak of the war, Szyszłowski organized a bivouac for over 2,000 riflemen and volunteers who set out for the Kingdom. After he sent out all the rifle divisions, he broke the camp and joined the line on September 21.
In the campaign of 1914 he took part in all its battles — Nowy Korczyn, Laski, Krzywopłoty and Podhale — as commander of the 3rd and after that the 5th infantry batallion. He distinguished himself in the battle of Łowczyki covering the retreat of the brigade’s battalions on the last day of the battle of December 25, 1914.
He was twice promoted in the Legions; in October to second lieutenant and in 1914 to lieutenant. In January 1915 he was elected member of the honorary court of the 1st brigade.
During the brigade’s positional battles in March 1915, Szyszłowski made the drawing The Post on the Nida River, now in the collection of the Historical Museum of the City of Cracow. The drawing realistically depicts military service in the trenches in the vicinity of Pińczów. Humorous Easter cards produced in the Art and Lithograph Workshop of the 5th Batallion, which Szyszkowski established date, from the same time. In May 1915 the artist began publishing the Batallion Veteran trench periodical, addressed to soldiers on the front.
Lieteutenant Mikołaj Szyszłowski fell in an attac of his company in the village of Kozinek near Konary, south-west of Sandomierz, on May 21, 1915. In Independent Poland he was postumously awarded the Virtuti Militari Cross and the Cross of Independence.