In the Paris Atelier of Stanisław Wyspiański and Józef Mehoffer

A small display in the ground-floor gallery of the Stanisław Wyspiański Museum. It brings together a handful of works on paper from the years when Wyspiański and Mehoffer shared a studio in Paris, including a seldom-seen pastel of one of those studios. This part runs until 31 December 2026. From January to May 2027 the same room will show two portraits of the actress Wanda Siemaszkowa.

The National Museum in Kraków on the exhibition (quoted from the museum’s own English page):

Throughout their shared years of study in Paris, Wyspiański and Mehoffer frequently portrayed one another. Mehoffer’s recollections survive in his Diary. Under the date 15 November 1892, he noted: “This morning I painted him [Wyspiański]; he did not pose, but instead painted himself again from the mirror (…)”; and on 5 May 1893: “Today I drew studies for Kazimierz - Wysp[iański] posed, then I imitated Polish kings, adopting movements appropriate to them - as if in portraits (…)”. Wyspiański, in turn, described their collaboration in a letter to Lucjan Rydel dated 8 March 1893: “We constantly draw here, painting each other at every moment (…)”.

Beyond presenting the relationship between the two artists, the exhibition also aims to showcase two works previously unknown to a wider audience, loaned from private collections and from the Museum of Kraków. A pastel depicting the interior of one of Wyspiański’s Paris studios was listed in the 1925 catalogue of the artist’s works as belonging to Dr Władysław Federowicz, a collector of several other works from Wyspiański’s Parisian period. A watercolour by Józef Mehoffer from the collection of the Museum of Kraków shows Wyspiański posing for his friend for one of his historical paintings.

What to expect

This is an add-on to the permanent collection, not a large exhibition in its own right. The museum attached it to the fifth annual rotation of its Wyspiański galleries and hangs it in a single ground-floor room. The works come from MNK’s own collection, plus two loans: one from the Museum of Kraków and one from a private owner. The museum names these works:

• Stanisław Wyspiański, a pastel of the interior of one of the Paris studios - from a private collection, recorded in the 1925 catalogue of the artist’s work as owned by Dr Władysław Federowicz. The curator dates it probably to 1891.
• Józef Mehoffer, “Stanisław Wyspiański in Paris” (1891-1892, watercolour on paper, Museum of Kraków) - Wyspiański posing for his friend’s history painting.
• Stanisław Wyspiański, “Double Portrait of Józef Mehoffer in the Paris Studio” (1891-1892, charcoal on paper, National Museum in Kraków) - also a study for Mehoffer’s stained-glass window for the Latin Cathedral in Lviv.
• Józef Mehoffer, “Portrait of Stanisław Wyspiański” (pencil on paper, National Museum in Kraków) - probably from the Paris years, 1890-1894, according to the museum.

The museum’s press images also include two Wyspiański studies of Mehoffer posing in historical costume, one of them as King Casimir the Great. This is most likely the sitting Mehoffer described in his diary on 5 May 1893, although the museum does not make that link itself.

One room, two displays in turn:

• 26 June - 31 December 2026: “In the Paris Atelier of Stanisław Wyspiański and Józef Mehoffer”, the works listed above.
• January - May 2027: “My Wonderful Youth” (the museum’s English title; the Polish title “Moja cudna Młoda” refers to the Bride), two pastel portraits of Wanda Siemaszkowa. She played the Bride at the premiere of Wyspiański’s play “The Wedding” at the Kraków Municipal Theatre on 16 March 1901. The museum has not yet published exact dates for this second display.

A note on the closing date. The museum’s English page and the visitor box of its 25 June 2026 press release give 26.06.2026-08.07.2027, a date that matches neither display. The Polish page and MNK’s Polish exhibition list give 26.06.2026-31.12.2026. The body of the press release says the display will run “do grudnia 2026 r.” (until December 2026), and the English page’s own text calls it the “first presentation (June-December 2026)”. This page therefore follows the Polish page: the Paris works are on view until 31 December 2026.

Context

Stanisław Wyspiański (1869-1907) was a painter, playwright, stained-glass and furniture designer; his play “The Wedding” is still a fixture of the Polish stage. Józef Mehoffer (1869-1946) was his classmate at St Anne’s Gymnasium in Kraków and his fellow student under Jan Matejko at the School of Fine Arts. Both left for Paris in 1891. Mehoffer, after a year at the private Académie Colarossi and the school of decorative arts, got into the École des Beaux-Arts and stayed until 1894. Wyspiański never got in and attended Colarossi from 1891 to 1894.

In 1892 the two fell out and Wyspiański moved out of Mehoffer’s flat, yet the 1893 diary and letter quoted by the museum show them still drawing each other. In Paris Wyspiański met the painter Władysław Ślewiński, came into contact with Gauguin and the Nabis, and studied the Puvis de Chavannes murals in the Panthéon. He returned to Kraków because he could no longer support himself.

Their paths then split. In 1895 Mehoffer beat 47 artists in an international competition for the stained glass of Fribourg Cathedral in Switzerland, and the last windows for its choir date from 1918-1936. Wyspiański died in 1907.

Tickets and time

There is no separate ticket. The display is included in admission to the branch: 18 PLN regular, 14 PLN reduced, family ticket 36 PLN, school pupils and students 1 PLN, children under 7 free. Buy on the MNK ticket site or at the desk.

Check the day before you set out. The branch opens Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10:00-16:00 (10 AM-4 PM) and Saturday and Sunday 11:00-16:00 (11 AM-4 PM); it is closed on Monday and Wednesday. It is the only MNK branch closed on a Wednesday. Last admission is 40 minutes before closing, so on any open day the latest entry is 15:20 (3:20 PM).

Tuesday is free admission to permanent exhibitions. The museum does not say whether that covers this temporary display; if that is why you are coming on a Tuesday, ask at the desk.

Allow about an hour for the whole museum, of which the display itself takes a quarter of an hour. The rest goes on the permanent galleries, drawn from a collection of more than 1,100 Wyspiański objects.

English on site: the museum publishes an English page for this display, and the branch rents a self-guided audio tour in Polish and English for 10 PLN (free for visitors with disabilities and their carers). The museum does not say whether the wall labels are in English. A virtual tour of the branch is available in Polish and English.

Best for: readers of “The Wedding”, anyone drawn to Polish Art Nouveau (Young Poland), and anyone curious how two friends and rivals saw each other at the easel. Skip unless: you are visiting the permanent collection anyway. This is a few works on paper - a good reason to go now if you are in Kraków, not a reason to travel here.

What the press says

dzieje.pl (25 June 2026, PAP wire): the opening announcement, quoting MNK director Andrzej Szczerski and the branch curator, highlighted the Paris studio pastel - PAP wire item on dzieje.pl (in Polish).

Nasz Dziennik (25 June 2026, AB, PAP): a shortened reprint of the same wire - Nasz Dziennik report (in Polish).

Magdalena Laskowska, the branch curator, told PAP that for displays like this the museum tries to borrow works the public has never seen, and that this was such a case. She described a beautiful pastel study of the interior of the Paris studio, probably from 1891 (her remarks were in Polish; rendered here in English).

No critical review has appeared. Both items are the same news-agency dispatch from opening week: an announcement, not an assessment.

Updates

• 2026-09-23 - the museum’s pages re-checked. The Polish exhibition page and MNK’s Polish exhibition list still give 26.06.2026-31.12.2026, the English page still 26.06.2026-08.07.2027; the visitor box of MNK’s press release of 25.06.2026 gives the same later date. Prices (18/14 PLN) and opening hours unchanged. The museum has announced no events for the display.
• 2026-09-13 - dates, prices and opening hours re-checked on the museum’s own pages: unchanged from the August record (18/14 PLN, display through 31 December 2026). The mismatch between the Polish and English MNK pages over the closing date is still unresolved.

See also

• Józef Mehoffer House - the MNK branch at 26 Krupnicza Street, in the home of the display’s other artist; the museum itself suggests a “Wyspiański and Mehoffer” route through both branches.
• Jan Matejko House - Matejko taught both men at the School of Fine Arts and brought Wyspiański into the wall paintings of St Mary’s Basilica, where their collaboration began.
• Vincent van Gogh: Country Cottages among Trees - a single-painting display at the MNK Main Building that closes on the same day, 31 December 2026.

Museum profile: Stanisław Wyspiański Museum .