0022 Collector at the Crossroads

Jan Działyński and the Kórnik Collection of Works of Art in the Second Half of the 19th Century: An Exhibition between the Romantic Spirit of Patriotism and a Modern Scientific Approach

Abstract

In the second half of the 19^th century, a tendency for a scientific approach to collecting became visible in Europe. Collectors established contacts with art experts and art researchers in order to assemble works of high class. A Polish aristocrat, Jan Działyński, presented a collection of works of art in a specially prepared castle room of his family estate in Kórnik. The exhibition of his collection bears features characteristic for a systematic and scientific approach to collecting; nevertheless, certain elements still testify to inspiration in Romantic collecting of national tokens, popular at the beginning of the 19^th century in Poland.