Until 1939, for more than fifty years of its existence, Stadt- und Kunstgewerbemuseum built up rich collections representing various genres of fine and decorative arts. From the very beginning, the creators of the institution were guided by the idea to gather valuable works marked by high artistry. The museum’s Board of Trustees saw to this, evaluating the offers of purchase and gifts. The Stadtmuseum’s collections were founded on the holdings of the Gdansk merchant Jacob Kabrun, donated to the city under his testament in 1814, and relocated to the museum building in 1872. These comprised valuable historical paintings, mainly Flemish and Dutch (304 in total), a set of 1,950 drawings and watercolours and about 11,000 prints by European artists from the 15th century to the beginning of the 19th century. In 1879, a collection of Jacob’s son, August Kabrun, comprising 52 paintings by 19th century artists and a set of copperplates, was included into the collection. The museum’s collections were also enriched with gifts and deposits provided by the Fine Arts Society (Kunstverein), which, established in 1835, purchased paintings with the thought of the future museum institution in mind since its very beginnings.
The legacy of the curators Rudolf Freitag and Wilhelm August Stryowski was also added to the museum’s collections. Freitag compiled a collection of plaster casts, local historical decorative arts, “pagan antiquities” and fossils and amber.[1] A considerable part of Stryowski’s rich collection was added to the museum collections in 1940, after the artist’s wife, Clara Bädecker-Stryowski, had died. The legacy comprised eight 17th and 18th century paintings, sculptures (including a figure of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne dating to the end of the 14th century), reliefs, furniture and details of works carved in wood from the 17th and 18th centuries, a set of ironworks, several items of historical ceramics and a small collection of historical prints.[2]
The museum’s collections were consistently extended owing to purchases, many gifts from individuals, and legacies. The latter included the collection of Louise Wilhelmine Trauschke (1872), comprising 53 paintings by 19th century German painters as well as watercolours and prints, and the holdings of pastor Friedrich G. Adolf Mundt (1901) – 65 paintings, including ones by Gdansk painters: Andreas Stech, Daniel Schultz, Jacob Wessel, Daniel Chodowiecki, and Michael Carl Gregorovius, and a set of prints. Among the significant gifts were 80 drawings with views of Gdansk, made by local 19th century artists, donated by Maria Konopacka (1885), and 85 drawings by a Gdansk artist, Friedrich Eduard Meyerheim, provided by his son Paul (1891), who also donated his father’s paintings in his testament (1914). The museum’s collections were also enriched with deposits. Of special value was a deposit from the City Library (Stadtbibliothek, 1895), covering inter alia 35 paintings (mainly portraits of Gdansk personalities, clergymen, scholars, lecturers from the Academic Gymnasium in Gdansk and a portrait of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach from 1544), eight paintings presenting Gdansk women’s clothing, 89 copies of engraved antique gems and busts of Johannes Hevelius and his wife. Precious deposits further included two overdoors by Jacob Wessel dating to 1778-1780, relocated from Upleger’s house at ul. Długa 18.[3]
Consistently made purchases also extended the museum’s collections; as far as painting is concerned, this included on average three items a year. In 1912, the museum held about 800 paintings.[4] Apart from works by 19th century German painters, the purchased items included paintings by Gdansk artists (such as Eduard Meyerheim, Eduard Hildebrandt, Wilhelm August Stryowski, Stanisław Chlebowski, Johann Carl Schultz, Albert Juchanowitz, and Otto Brausewetter). Of special value were the relatively few purchases of historical paintings, including Pejzaż leśny [Forest Landscape] by Jan Breughel the Elder, Portret dziecka z rodziny Ferberów [Portrait of a Child from the Ferber Family] by Salomon Wegner, Pięć zmysłów [The Five Senses] by Anton Möller, and Portret pastora Andreasa Gnospiusa [Portrait of Pastor Andreas Gnospius] and Autoportret [Self-portrait] by Andreas Stech. When directorship of the museum was taken over by Hans F. Secker (1912-1922), the focus was shifted increasingly towards modern German art. Purchases now included works by artists from the milieu of the Berlin and the Munich Secession, as well as ones following realism, impressionism or expressionism: Wilhelm Trübner, Lovis Corinth, Max Liebermann, and Emil Nolde, as well as contemporary Gdansk artists: Arthur Bendrat and Fritz Pfuhle.[5]
The collection of prints and drawings was also extended via purchases. Along with works by old masters (such as drawings by Albrecht Dürer and Hans Vredeman de Vries, and prints by Lucas Cranach, Jacques Callot, Daniel Chodowiecki, Honore Daumier, Hendrik Goltzius, and Jeremias Falck), drawings and prints by 19th century and contemporary Gdansk and German artists such as Max Liebermann, Lyonel Feininger, Georg Kolbe, Paul Klee, as well as ones representing expressionism: Emil Nolde, Ernst Barlach, Max Pechstein, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluf were collected in a planned manner.[6] Prints by Gdansk and non-local artists, thematically related to Gdansk: views of the city, portraits of its personages, maps and plans, were also bought consistently. The absence of comprehensive prewar documentation prevents an ultimate estimation of the number of items in these collections; but as results from the only surviving information of 1926, the Prints Room, which gathered prints and drawings (independently of Kabrun’s collection), held 12,000 objects.[7]
The museum had a sizeable collection of wooden and stone sculptures; the majority of them used to belong to the holdings of Westpreussisches Provinzial-Gewerbemuseum which was attached to the facility in 1884. Of particular value was a set of medieval objects – mainly gifts from Evangelical communities from Pomeranian churches. The collected items also included architectural stone details from the reconstructed Gdansk structures (such as Gothic panels from the stoops at ul. Mariacka). Plaster casts of famous works of art dating to the times from antiquity to the modern period formed a separate, numerous collection, initiated by the co-founder of the museum, sculptor Rudolf Freitag. In 1929, a set of figurines from the Sopot collection of Friedrich Basner was purchased.[8] As was the case with paintings, prints and drawings, a collection of works by contemporary sculptors (Fritz Klimsch, Georg Kolbe, Aristide Maillol, Constantin Meunier, Renee Sintenis, and Louis Tuaillon) was also gathered.
The majority of the items from the rich collection of decorative arts belonged to Kunstgewerbemuseum, established on the foundations of Eduard Ludwig Garbe’s collection of more than 400 objects, which was purchased in 1881. It comprised ceramics – mainly faience, historical items from copper and brass, and furniture.
The collection of decorative arts was consistently extended – as was the case with the collections of the other genres of art represented in the museum – by way of donations, gifts, and purchases. By the end of the Second World War, the museum held in excess of 5,200 historical objects of decorative art.
Among the genres of decorative arts richly represented in the collections were furniture-making and wood carving. The collection comprised historical objects made in Gdansk, Elbląg, Frombork, and other local centres in Pomerania, as well as north European items – German, Netherlandish and English. The items included elements of the interior decoration of burgher houses, such as overdoors, boiserie panels, and elements of sculpted staircases. The collection also included a set of guild chests and craftsmen’s signs, merchants’ abacuses, models of furniture items and rafter framing. The types of furniture represented included vestibule wardrobes, clothing chests, chairs, tables, beds, coffers and caskets, mirrors, wooden sconces and candle holders.[9]
A collection of goldsmith’s wares included a small but precious set of Gothic liturgical vessels provided from St. Mary’s church in Gdansk, as well as superb Baroque works by the local goldsmiths. These included silver welcome beakers of rich Gdansk corporations of bakers, millers, builders and Vistula skippers, which functioned in the museum’s collections as permanent deposits, as well as gala, luxury silver items: tankards, goblets, trays, and mugs from Gdansk, Torun and Nuremberg. The collections also included silver tableware, cutlery, small household items such as toiletry boxes and snuffboxes, and jewellery. One of the most valuable objects in the collection was a silver signal whistle of Gdansk seamen from the first half of the 16th century.[10]
The museum also held a large set of household objects made from metal: tin, copper, brass, bronze and iron. The most interesting of these included numerous guild vessels and memorabilia with craftsmen’s emblems and inscriptions – this applies in particular to the tinware and copperware. Among them were welcome beakers, jugs, tankards and mugs, plates and inkwells. The collections also included household items such as warmers, including bed warmers, mortars, and candle holders. Apart from small locksmith products – fittings, locks, keys and cash boxes – the facility also gathered architectural ironwork.
Clocks made a small, but diverse set; the prewar collection included about 40 of them. The different types of timepieces represented were sundials, table clocks, wall clocks, grandfather clocks, as well as pocket watches; only a few of these were made by Gdansk clockmakers. The most precious ones included a silver sundial with a gnomon signed by Johannes Hevelius and marked with the date 1638 and the following inscription: Hoc sole renascar.[11]
Kunstgewerbemuseum also held a collection of amber objects, which included about 35 items – mainly small and large caskets from the 17th and 18th century, some figurines (including those of Madonna and Child), boxes and snuffboxes.
The museum’s collection of ceramics was founded on the holdings gathered by Ludwig Garbe; its sections determined further direction of the collection of exhibits. A principle of acquiring ceramics used in Gdansk households was adopted. Objects were gathered in the following sections: stoneware; early Spanish-Mauritanian faience, Italian majolica, Persian, Turkish and Portuguese faience; Delft faience, Dutch and Frisian faience wall tiles; German faience; French faience; faience from Sweden, Stralsund, Bornholm, and Konigsberg; English ceramics; Silesian faience, Pomeranian ceramics; European ceramics; ceramics from the Far East; clayware, faience stoves (mainly Gdansk stoves and tiles from ab. 1700 to the period of Biedermeier, as well tiles from southern Germany and Switzerland).[12] The museum also held a collection of artistic objects from glass – from antiquity until the 19th century, and Secession glass. These historical objects originated from Venetian, Bohemian, German, English, Polish and Silesian workshops.[13]
The museum also gathered historical fabrics. The holdings included textiles from antiquity to modern times: both local European, and Asian goods. Apart from liturgical paraments, clothing and other memorabilia from the houses of Gdansk patricians, the collection also included a set of fragments of Coptic textiles acquired from excavations in the Faiyum Oasis and Akhmim.[14] In 1936, a deposit from the Evangelical Community by St. Mary’s church in Gdansk was acquired, which comprised 541 liturgical paraments from the period between the 13th to the 16th centuries. The set was described in a five-volume catalogue by the then-director of the museum, Walter Mannowsky.[15] The determination of the exact number of historical textiles collected in the museum until 1939 is impossible; but the collection could have comprised about 2000 exhibits.[16]
We know from the scant prewar documentation which managed to survive that the museum’s collections also included historical weapons and numismatic items. In the absence of detailed research, we are currently unable to estimate the contents and count of holdings in these collections.
[1] Czesława Betlejewska, “Muzeum Miejskie w Gdańsku w latach 1870-1945”, in: Straty wojenne Muzeum Miejskiego w Gdańsku, vol. I, Straty w dziedzinie sztuki: malarstwa, rysunku, grafiki, rzeźby, Gdańsk 2005, pp. 12-13, 19.
[2] Helena Kowalska, “Pasje Stryowskiego”, in: Wilhelm August Stryowski 1834-1917 malarz, kolekcjoner, konserwator, muzealnik, pedagog, A catalogue of an exhibition, Gdańsk 2002, pp. 55-60; Helena Kowalska, Straty wojenne Muzeum Miejskiego (Stadtmuseum) w Gdańsku, Seria Nowa, vol. 1, Malarstwo, Gdańsk 2017, pp. 48-49
[3] For further information on gifts, private collections and deposits added to Stadtmuseum’s collections, see Kowalska 2017, pp. 23-27
[4] Kowalska 2017, pp. 27, 30.
[5] Magdalena Mielnik, “Nowoczesne muzeum, czyli Muzeum Miejskie i Muzeum Rzemiosła Artystycznego pod dyrekcją Hansa Friedricha Seckera”, pp. 16-33, in: [*uwaga, tu tytuł wpisać kursywą]
[6] For information on collections of drawings and prints, see Grażyna Zinówko, “Zbiory rysunków w Muzeum Miejskim (Stadtmuseum) w Gdańsku”, in: Straty 2005 I, pp. 111-165; Kalina Zabuska, “Straty poniesione przez muzealnictwo na skutek wojennego rozproszenia zbiorów Muzeum Miejskiego (Stadtmuseum) w Gdańsku”, in: Straty 2005 I, pp. 169-210.
[7] Zinówko, op.cit, p. 113.
[8] For more on the collection of sculptures, see Zbigniew Massowa, (untitled), Straty 2005 I, pp. 213-254.
[9] For further information on the collection of furniture, see Czesława Betlejewska, “Straty wojenne w zbiorach mebli Muzeum Miejskiego i Muzeum Rzemiosł Artystycznych (Stadt- und Kunstgewerbemuseum) w Gdańsku”, in: Straty wojenne Muzeum Miejskiego i Muzeum Rzemiosł Artystycznych w Gdańsku, vol. II, Straty w dziedzinie rzemiosła artystycznego: meble, bursztyny, metale, Gdańsk 2005, pp. 13-72.
[10] For more on the collection of goldsmith’s wares, see Barbara Włodarska, Złotnictwo od XIV do XX wieku. Katalog zbiorów Muzeum Narodowego w Gdańsku, Gdańsk 2005, pp. 7-8, 118-127; on the collection of goldsmith’s wares, metals and amber, see Barbara Włodarska, Straty wojenne w zbiorach bursztynu i metali Muzeum Miejskiego i Muzeum Rzemiosł Artystycznych (Stadt- und Kunstgewerbemuseum) w Gdańsku, Straty 2005 II, pp. 75-170.
[11] For further information on the collection of clocks, see Anna Baranowska-Fietkiewicz, Lech Łopuski, “Kolekcja zegarów w Muzeum Narodowym w Gdańsku”, in: Nowy początek. (Od)budowa kolekcji muzealnych po II wojnie światowej, J. Trupinda, A. Siuciak, eds, Malbork 2019.
[12] For further information on the collection of ceramics, see Elżbieta Kilarska, Straty wojenne Muzeum Miejskiego i Muzeum Rzemiosł Artystycznych w Gdańsku, vol. III, Straty w dziedzinie ceramiki, Gdańsk 2007.
[13] Marta Krajewska, “Biberon? Antyczna zagadka”, E-Biuletyn Muzeum Narodowego w Gdańsku, no. 6, 2014, pp. 39-43
[14] Lech Łopuski, Beata Sztyber, “Tkaniny koptyjskie oraz zabytki znad Nilu i Tybru”, E-Biuletyn Muzeum Narodowego w Gdańsku, no. 6, 2014, pp. 29-37
[15] Walter Mannowsky, Der Danziger Paramentenschatz: Kirchliche Gewänder und Stickereien aus der Marienkirche, vol. 1–5, Danzig 1931–1938
[16] For more on the collection of textiles, see Beata Sztyber, Stracone. Ocalone. Zbiór tkanin w Stadtmuseum i Muzeum Narodowym w Gdańsku, post-conference materials (in press)