Journey Into the Unknown

Matthew Bateson's art collection is gatehring the works of Polish émigré artists – painters, printmakers and sculptors creating in the 2nd half of the 20th century in Britain. The collection has preserved important works, which without it would likely have been dispersed and lost.

Ksawery Branicki was one of the colorful figures of the Great Emigration. He generously supported Polish artists in exile in France. The romantic portrait of the girl musician he bought directly from the painter. He vastly overpaid the artist in order to support him financially.

The town of Bieniakonie is in today's Belarus, not far from the border with Lithuania. In the interwar period from its small railroad station one could take a train to Vilnius or Lida. The station building, whose architecture is modeled on the characteristic shape of a Polish noble manor house with a hip roof, was built during the Second Polish Republic.

The decorative chalice of a unique shape is made from the shell of a large marine cephalopod Nautilus pompilius. These shells were brought to Europe from the Indian and Pacific Oceans along with oriental spices, tea and Far Eastern porcelain. The chalice may have been a votive offering with an important intention or in gratitude.

The etching of a civet bears the author’s signature in the lower left-hand corner: Joannes Ziarn:. On the back of the print is an inscription in Latin stating that the work was dedicated to the royal perfumer and another signature of the author, this time additionally bearing the word "POLON[us]."

The letter was sent to the Turkish Pasha, the governor residing in Khotyn on the Dniester River. Khotyn was a border fortress passing between Polish, Moldavian and Turkish hands. Ilyas Kolchak Pasha resided there in the 1730s; at the time Khotyn was under Turkish rule, and the Commonwealth bordered the Ottoman Empire.

The history of the castle in Montrésor dates back to the Middle Ages, and when Róża Branicka, Ksawery's mother, bought it in 1849, it was in a bad state of repair, but over the next twenty years Ksawery Branicki had it thoroughly renovated. He created an exquisite private residence with a collection of works of art and collection of memorabilia and artwork related to Poland.

Franciszek Eckstein began creating the paintings decorating the vault of the Sts. Peter and Paul Church in 1739. After his death in 1741, the work was continued by his son Sebastian, who completed it in 1749. The decorations of are occupying more than a thousand square meters. 

The portrait of a girl holding a rooster was painted by Jan Zamoyski, a disciple of Tadeusz Pruszkowski at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. The painting was one of the more than 11,000 works of art, handicrafts and industrial products sent by the Polish government to the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

 In the 1940s the Indian Prince Umaid Singh commissioned Warsaw-born Stefan Norblin to decorate his newly built palace.  Artist did a series of six paintings decorating the most representative Oriental Hall with the scenes from "Ramayana". Style developed by the artist combines Art Déco with the Indian traditions.

About eighteen thousand Polish refugees were sent to Africa during World War II.  They were sent to settlements built for them specially. These settlements had schools, hospitals and chapels, theaters, sports teams.