The creative position of women in the 19^th century was subject to numerous conditions and threats. Conditions primarily originated in the professionalization and institutionalization of artistic life, which — at least for women of this generation — were a hindrance to an artistic career. Difficulties arose from the limited access to institutions, from customary conventions, but also from a life full of personal tragedies and financial dependency. The women of Olga Boznańska’s generation constituted the first distinct group practicing art professionally, unlike their predecessors, who, with few exceptions, were amateurish, often talented and artistically educated.

Konstanty Laszczka (1865–1956) seems to have been less famous than his contemporary Young Poland artists, with many of whom he befriended and portrayed in his works. Was his style not original enough?

The painter — a small-bodied young man with the look of an intellectual — represented himself in the form of a bust portrait in a foreground, against a neutral background. He looks at us attentively through his pince-nez. Although portrayed principally en face, he is marked by a lively posture, manifesting itself in an asymmetrical position of Mehoffer's shoulders, the artist's head being slightly turned to the right, with his face being somewhat turned in the opposite direction.

This mock-up is one of the most valuable objects in the collections of HMK, related to the scenographic activity of Stanisław Wyspiański. As an experienced theatre practitioner and stage director of his dramas, Wyspiański made scenography sketches, decorations, and costume designs, as well as mock-ups.

The Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków stores several landscapes of small sizes typical of the painter. The landscape painting, Giardino Guisti, depicts the famous gardens of the Pallazo Giardino Giusti in Verona.

Jan Stanisławski (1860–1907) is one of the greatest painters of the Young Poland period and an excellent landscape painter, known primarily for his miniature landscapes. The Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków stores several landscapes of small sizes typical of the painter. Among them is the painting entitled The Little Garden.

Jacek Malczewski, one of the most outstanding Polish Symbolism painters left a rich artistic legacy. The work of Malczewski is extremely extensive and multi-layered. His paintings present his personal desires as well as the national tragedy and traditions. Mythology intertwined with religion, folk motifs mixed with tale themes.

The portrait has been drawn with pastels on greyish green, grained textured paper, glued on thick, lightly coloured cardboard. The man portrayed, Stanisław Synowiec, was framed head-and-shoulders en face.

The originator of the idea of creating an artistic cabaret was Jan August Kisielewski, after his return from Paris. Cukiernia Lwowska [Lviv Confectionery], run by Jan Michalik, was a meeting place for the Kraków bohemians to which belonged students and graduates of the Academy...

This painting, characteristically shaped as a vertically extended rectangle, is a portrait of the artist's wife against a background of the interior of a summer apartment. This piece was created in 1904 in Zakopane, where the Mehoffers rented a newly completed wooden highland house for a few months.