Priest

Józef Mehoffer was born in 1869 in Ropczyce, where he spent the first year of his life. His father, Wilhelm Mehoffer, was promoted to councillor at the National Court in Kraków and the whole family moved there. Kraków proved to be an important city in Mehoffer's life, as did Vienna and Paris, where he continued his education as a lawyer and painter and made acquaintances with eminent personalities such as his teacher Jan Matejko and his friend Stanisław Wyspiański.

Józef Mehoffer's artistic career involved not only easel painting, but also designing stained glass windows, i.e. monumental painting. Numerous realisations of his designs can be found in churches in Poland, including Kraków, Włocławek, Lwów, Przemyśl, Turek, Jutrosin, and one of the most important realisations, on a European scale, is in the Saint Nicholas Church in Fribourg. The stained-glass windows were designed for a competition held in 1895, which the artist was encouraged to enter by Tadeusz Stryjeński. Mehoffer won the competition; he was twenty-six years old at the time. This is how the artist described the event: "During the time that I have not been writing, the Freiburg competition has been successfully concluded. This success was considerable - but nominal, not real. The project that I sent in was done out of routine, by a gained skill - and a pre-determined way of making use of studies from nature - so it was a sure job - conscious of the effect - to which it eventually came. People do not see this and are impressed by the gain of the competition in foreign countries".

For forty years one of the most interesting works of European Art Nouveau was created. It consists of thirteen stained glass windows, eight in the aisles and five in the chancel. Two thematic motifs can be distinguished: representations of saints and complex religious or historical compositions. The style of the stained-glass windows is very decorative.

The sketch shown has an annotation by the artist stating that it was intended for the church of St. Nicholas in Freiburg.

Klara Sadkowska