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Object: The two-bay façade of the building at 1 Długa St. lacks a portal, and its primary adornment is a polychrome decoration. The painted decoration is positioned above the windows on the ground floor and two upper floors. Above the ground floor, two rectangular panels depict female market vendors in ornate, lace-adorned mobcaps. They are selling poultry and eggs. Above the first and second floor windows, smaller rectangular panels feature plant scrolls supported by roosters and hens. The tenement underwent conservation in 1979 and 2015, with the latest work carried out by Anna Żychska.
Location: The painted decoration was created as part of an effort by artists – primarily lecturers and students of the State School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (PWSSP) – to contribute to the reconstruction of Główne Miasto, which had been heavily damaged in 1945. Długa Street and Długi Targ were among the first areas to be rebuilt. The most valuable tenements were faithfully reconstructed, while others were given stylistic adaptations inspired, more or less, by their pre-1945 appearance. These restored façades were intended to serve as a backdrop for the reconstructed historical monuments.
Information about the author: Józefa Wnukowa (b. 1911 in Warsaw, d. in Sopot in 2000) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and afterwards lived in Paris and Lviv. During World War II, she was active in the resistance and participated in the Warsaw Uprising. She moved to Sopot in 1945, becoming a key figure in the emerging artistic community on the Baltic Coast. A long-time lecturer at PWSSP, she contributed to the reconstruction of Gdańsk’s Główne Miasto tenements (1952–1955) and decorated the interiors of the Główne Miasto Town Hall in 1970. In addition to architectural painting, she worked in easel painting, textile art, and designed opera set designs and costumes.
Boguchwała Bramińska (b. 1922 – d. in Gdynia in 2019) graduated in painting from the State School of Fine Arts (PWSSP, 1952). Between 1953 and 1954, she worked with teams led by Stanisław Teisseyre and Józefa Wnukowa on the artistic decoration of façades on Długi Targ and Długa Street. She later taught at the Faculty of Architecture of the Gdańsk University of Technology in the Department of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture. Her artistic output included easel painting, drawings, and monotypes
Jan Rzyszczak (b. 1922, d. in Poznań in 1995) graduated in painting from the State School of Fine Arts (1952).
Condition of the object: good, the façade underwent conservation in 2015
Owner/guardian: private object
Entry author: Klaudiusz Grabowski
Sources: Wspomnienia z odbudowy Głównego Miasta, vol. 1, ed. by Izabella Trojanowska (Gdańsk, 1997); Wspomnienia z odbudowy Głównego Miasta, vol. 2, ed. by Izabella Greczanik-Filip (Gdańsk, 1997)
Literature:
Dekoracje architektoniczne Gdańska 1945–1989, vol. 1, Główne Miasto – fresk, sgraffito, mozaika, ceramika, ed. by Jacek Kriegseisen (Gdańsk, 2016)
Jacek Friedrich, ‘Malarstwo monumentalne’, in Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Gdańsku 1945–2005 (Gdańsk, 2005)
Jacek Friedrich, Odbudowa Głównego Miasta w Gdańsku w latach 1945–1960 (Gdańsk, 2015)
Jacek Friedrich, ‘Wystrój dekoracyjny Drogi Królewskiej w Gdańsku w latach 1953–1955’, Gdańskie Studia Muzealne, Ann. 6 (1995)
Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, Gdańsk Główne Miasto, ed. by Barbara Roll, Iwona Strzelecka (Warsaw, 2006)
Jan Kołodziej, Barbara Brzuszkiewicz, ‘Kształtowanie tożsamości miejsca poprzez konserwację istniejących i wykonanych nowych dekoracji artystycznych dla fasad kamienic odbudowanych po 1945 r. na obszarze Głównego Miasta w Gdańsku’, in Polichromie i sgraffita na fasadach ośrodków staromiejskich odbudowanych po 1945 r. Kreacja i konserwacja, ed. by Anna Jagiellak, Paulina Świątek (Warsaw, 2015)
Anna Kriegseisen, ‘Starogdańskie kamieniczki pełne nowej treści – dekoracje fasadowe czasu odbudowy 1945–1960, czyli technologia w służbie ideologii’, in Gdańsk 1945–1990. Materiały–studia–analizy, vol. 1, ed. Edmund Kizik, Mirosław Golon (Gdańsk–Warszawa, 2017)
Anna Kriegseisen, ‘W poszukiwaniu straconego koloru. Wystrój barwny zachowanych i odbudowanych fasad Głównego i Starego Miasta Gdańska’, in Polichromie i sgraffita na fasadach ośrodków staromiejskich odbudowanych po 1945 r. Kreacja i konserwacja, ed. by Anna Jagiellak, Paulina Świątek (Warsaw, 2015)
Anna Żychska, ‘Dekoracja malarska na fasadzie kamienicy przy ul. Długiej 1 w Gdańsku – problematyka technologiczno-konserwatorska’, Zabytkoznawstwo i Konserwatorstwo, Ann. XLVIII (2017).
Franciszek Mamuszka, Droga Królewska w Gdańsku (Gdańsk, 1972)
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