The sculpture shows the upper part of the old man’s body, wearing a thick coat, a vest and a ribbon tied on his neck, securing the shirt’s collar. His right arm, bent in the elbow, holds up his coat. The whole statue is a very thin plaster cast, painted with a dark pink patina.
The bust was sort of a sketch for later creation of a bronze statue presenting Wojciech Bogusławski for a competition held in 1929. Jan Szczepkowski won the competition and the statue was revealed on 27th of September 1936 on Theatre Square in Warsaw. The ceremony was conducted by the current president of Warsaw Stefan Starzyński. The socle of the statue is a Flemish granite, decorated with motifs presenting various characters in the style of art déco. The monument was blown up in 1944 by Germans. Only the fragments of socle remained. Some other parts were later found in Lilpop’s factory. It was again unveiled on the 17th of January 1965 – Jan Szczepkowski himself was supervising the reconstruction. All the original parts were recreated with such detail that even the bullet marks are visible.
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