Henryk Sienkiewicz: Drawings and Sketches in Pen and Pencil

Henryk Sienkiewicz is a widely acclaimed Polish writer of the late 19th century and early 20th century. He is one of the five Polish Nobel Prize winners in literature. Not many people know, however, that Sienkiewicz was also artistically talented. He often decorated his letters to his closest family and friends with small sketches. The Ossolineum has held a modest collection (several dozen) of writer’s small drawings and sketches since 2018. The collection is all the more valuable, as in recent years researchers have become increasingly interested in this area of the writer’s activity. The dominant motif in Sienkiewicz's drawings are portraits. Both the realistic ones, presenting a real resemblance to the model, and caricatures that exaggerate and deform the most characteristic features of the drawn figure. It is worth noting that in the Ossolineum drawing collection middle-aged male figures prevail. Often these are only fragments of male profiles, some images has some traits of caricatures. However, there are small drawings of female figures, too, as well as an image of a young couple kneeling in front of an altar.