Opening hours: Closed Mondays; open Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, 10am-7pm; Wednesday, Thursday, 10am-4pm; Sunday, 10am-3pm.
The Nineteenth Century Polish Art Gallery is housed in the Sukiennice, a historical trading hall. Originally a fourteenth century Gothic building, the Sukiennice were first redesigned by Jan Maria Padovano in the mid-sixteenth century. The Renaissance attic with gargoyles comes from that period. The second remodelling was carried out under the supervision of Tomasz Prylinski, in collaboration with Jan Matejko, in 1875-79.
Inside visitors will see the Gallery of Polish Painting and Sculpture, the oldest division of the National Museum in Cracow, initiated by Henryk Siemiradzki with a gift of his famous POCHODNIE NERONA / Nero's Torches painting. The first permanent exhibition opened at the Sukiennice in 1884. Nowadays the Gallery displays outstanding works by Polish artists from the second half of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, notably canvases by Marcello Bacciarelli, Piotr Michalowski - Poland's greatest romantic painter, Jan Matejko (HOLD PRUSKI / The Prussian Homage, IWAN GROZNY / Ivan the Terrible and other paintings), Henryk Siemiradzki, Jacek Malczewski (WIGILIA NA SYBERII / Christmas Eve in Siberia), Jozef Chelmonski (the famous CZWÓRKA / Four-in-Hand and BURZA / The Storm), Aleksander Gierymski (TRABKI / The Trumpets and WIECZOR NAD SEKWANA / An Evening on the Seine), Wladyslaw Podkowinski and Leon Wyczolkowski. On display are also sculptures by Jakub Tatarkiewicz, Pius Welonski, Antoni Kurzawa, Antoni Madeyski, and others.
Galeria Sztuki Polskiej XIX w. w Sukiennicach
Oddział Muzeum Narodowego w Krakowie
Rynek Główny 1/3
31-042 Kraków
Region: małopolskie
Phone: (+48 12) 422 11 66, 292 64 71
Fax: (+48 12) 292 64 70
WWW: www.muzeum.krakow.pl