Grodzka Gate

Jan Kanty Gumowski (1883-1946) studied at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts under J. Mehoffer, L. Wyczółkowski and K. Laszczka. Already during his studies, he worked at the National Museum in Kraków on the inventory of monuments. Gumowski's skill in rendering buildings and the charm of landscapes of the Polish lands with precision resulted in the publication of eight graphic volumes devoted to monuments of architecture and wooden buildings, roadside crosses and chapels, which, apart from the reconstructive approach, are characterized by technical excellence. In 1914, Gumowski joined the Polish Legions, and thanks to the portraits of legionaries and views of battle sites created with great sensitivity, he soon became the draughtsman of the First Brigade. At the same time, he collected materials for the volumes he started before the war. One of the earlier ones he devoted to Lublin, where he came several times in 1916. He arrived here for the first time in September, from Chełm, to convalesce after a bout of disinfection. His next stays in the city lasted until 1917, when he probably made drawings and watercolours documenting the monuments of Lublin, based on which he created a series of fifteen lithographic plates included in the Lublin portfolio. Motywy architektury polskiej Jana Gumowskiego [Motives of Polish Architecture by Jan Gumowski], b. 3, published in Kraków in 1918. On multicolour or black-and-white sheets, he depicted mainly the Jewish quarter in Podzamcze, the gates of the Old Town, the buildings of the Kalinowo and Tatary districts. Gumowski constructed his sheets according to the adopted composition scheme, centrally locating the view of the buildings and sometimes supplementing it with the ground plan. Leading to the city from Podzamcze, the Grodzka Gate, erected in the 14th century, was part of the city fortifications. Due to the reconstruction carried out in the 18th century by D. Merlini, it lost its defensive character. Gumowski portrayed the gate from the Old Town side, showing the outlines of houses in Zamkowa Street, which do not exist today and which, together with the Jewish district, was destroyed after the liquidation of the ghetto in 1943. The way the gate, saturated with light, is portrayed reveals Gumowski's great sensitivity to colour.

Anna Hałata