Ignacy Jan Paderewski with his Wife Helena and a Group of Companions Dressed as Maoris in Rotorua during the Pianist’s tour of New Zealand

For most of his life, Ignacy Jan Paderewski travelled extensively, playing concerts on the grandest of European and global, as well as in private salons. All in all, the artist completed 20 concert tours of the United States alone, going from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. Life on the road was not without its discomforts, but the Paderewskis found a way to feel as at home as possible – in 1900, they bought a railway carriage in which they travelled all around the United States. Inside the carriage was a sitting room, of course with a piano, and a bedroom. Finding its way into the Museum’s collection was a group of photographs, including pictures from Paderewskis travels, often of a documentary nature, like, for instance, several from a trip to the Whakarewarewa Maori village (Rotorua, New Zealand), in which we see the smiling and relaxed couple wearing the villagers’ traditional fur cloak costume.